site.btaIvan Vazov Library in Odesa Is Part of Bulgarian Community's Cultural Life

The Ivan Vazov Bulgarian Library in Odesa is part of the cultural and educational life of the Bulgarian community, according to guests at the BTA Press Club in the Ukrainian Black Sea city. All-Ukrainian Centre for Bulgarian Culture Director Dimitar Terzi and the Deputy Director of the Odesa City Centralized Library System for Children, Alexandra Deli, were part of Friday's presentation of the January issue of LIK magazine on "Chitalishta: Past and Future."

"Odesa is the largest city in southern Ukraine and the most densely populated. About 60,000 Bulgarians live here. Our Bulgarian library has become a classic Bulgarian community centre since its establishment in October  1998. It is one of the most necessary tools for the development, knowledge enhancement, and education of the Bulgarian community in Odesa," said Terzi.

"The Ivan Vazov Library was established with the assistance of the Odesa Bulgarian Society, the All-Ukrainian Centre for Bulgarian Culture, and active Bulgarians. Today, the main collection consists of over 7,000 volumes of scientific, historical, and educational literature, and we have many Bulgarian classics," he explained.

"With the opening of the All-Ukrainian Centre for Bulgarian Culture in 1999, the library began to function fully. It became a Bulgarian chitalishte community centre at the Centre. In 2002, the Vasil Aprilov Bulgarian Sunday School was established at the Centre. This was motivated by the growing number of Bulgarians in Odesa, which is home to over 60,000 Bulgarians. Over the past 24 years, more than 3,000 people have studied at the school - pupils and students living in Odesa," he added.

"There is interest in the library. Many Bulgarians come here, especially young people who plan to study in Bulgaria. Representatives of other nationalities also come, many students who are interested in Bulgarian topics. I want to emphasize that regardless of the development of modern technologies and the Internet, interest in the library, the community centre, and books will not disappear," 
argued Terzi.

Deli spoke about the links between the Ivan Vazov Library and the Odesa City Centralised Library System for Children in Odesa, announcing that their library collection includes 53 books in Bulgarian. "Last year, as part of our cooperation, the Bulgarian "Last year, as part of our cooperation, the Bulgarian Cultural Centre gave us fiction in Bulgarian. Most of it is kept in the library on Varnenska Street, where there's a permanent book exhibition with Bulgarian literature," she said.

The centralized city library system for children was established in 1976 and today comprises 19 branches, she specified. "The total number of books in the collection is 254,000. Last year, our system served 89,000 readers. In recent years, branch libraries have gradually been transformed into centres for family reading, where children actively use library services together with their parents," she noted.

LIK issues and books on the history of BTA were donated to the Odesa City Centralized Library System for Children and the Ivan Vazov Bulgarian Library.