To mark the 138th anniversary of the University Library, Assoc. Prof. Bilyana Yavrukova – Director of the Library – traced its historic path and praised the efforts of Prof. Alexander Teodorov Balan, Prof. Lyubomir Miletich and Acad. Stoyan Argirov towards the library’s establishment and development. Speaking about the first librarians and the library’s achievements over the years, Assoc. Prof. Yavrukova shared the idea of organising a dedicated space, which would showcase the history and activities of a different library department or service each year.
The first themed display is dedicated to catalogues and cataloguing at the University Library. The display cases feature methodological guidelines and instructions used over the years, as well as archive photographs and items from the cataloguers’ daily work – a typewriter, a catalogue drawer and various other tools.
The exhibition focuses on the earliest rules for bibliographic description, compiled by the long-serving director of the University Library, Acad. Stoyan Argirov, and a catalogue of early printed works designed as a notebook with replaceable pages.
A chronicle of the development of cataloguing practice at the University Library is also displayed – starting with the formulation of the first rules for describing library resources, continuing with the internal rules for catalogue description within the integrated library and information system ALEPH 500, and concluding with the International Standard for Bibliographic Description – Consolidated Edition (ISBD), introduced in 2023.
Following the presentation of the thematic section ‘Catalogues and Cataloguing at the “St. Kliment Ohridski” University Library’, Assoc. Prof. Yavrukova highlighted the library’s achievements and success in the field of digitising cultural and scientific heritage and its support for Open Science at Sofia University. In order to promote the digitisation processes and the organisation of digital content, the ‘Digitise with Us!’ initiative was organised at the start of the academic year. Five participants were selected by lottery from among those who had expressed interest, and they will take part in a hands-on training course organised by the ‘Digitisation, Scientific Databases and Services’ department.
