Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library - Varna was established by the Varna Literary Society in 1883 with the generous donations of prominent public figures and patriots from the city. Since 1945, the library has been a depository of Bulgarian national literature. Currently, the Pencho Slaveykov Library - Varna is a publicly accessible library supported by the municipality, charged with the functions of a regional (zonal) library and methodological center.
Regional Library "Pencho Slaveykov" is a member of the Association of Regional Libraries in Bulgaria, the Union of Library and Information Workers and participates as a partner in various programs of European non-governmental cultural institutes - British Council, Goethe Institute, Alliance Française and others. The library preserves the national printed production; searches, researches and preserves our spiritual heritage through its unique collections, reflecting the lifestyle and cultural development of the Varna region.
As a universal scientific library, it serves researchers, specialists, students and others from all fields of science and practice. Regional Library "Pencho Slaveykov" stores and provides for use books and periodicals (the entire production of Bulgarian publishing houses after 1945 and those of foreign publishing houses), manuscripts and archival documents, albums, cartographic publications, official and service publications, standards, sheet music publications, gramophone records, audio and video cassettes, compact discs, microfilms and others, acquired through deposit, purchases, donations.
As of 1998, the library owned 800,000 library items, including books, periodicals and others, which were available to users through its structural units. The library is the most democratic, widely open and accessible cultural institute on the territory of the city of Varna. The library employs 50 highly qualified specialists with different profiles: library and bibliographic sciences, humanities, engineers - specialists in the field of library software.
Since 1990, library and technological processes for processing library items and documents and serving readers have been automated. A local computer network has been built in the library, with the financial support of the "Open Society" Foundation.
The library maintains in electronic form:
• catalog of books in Bulgarian and foreign languages;
• catalog of periodicals;
• reference - bibliographical information;
• information about Varna and the Varna region;
• catalog of rare and valuable collections;
• national bibliography.
The modern appearance of the public library is also manifested in the new forms that have replaced traditional library services:
• electronic registration system;
• maintaining library cards in electronic format;
• identification of library documents by barcode;
• electronic request for documents
• interlibrary loan and receipt of documents from other libraries in the country and abroad
• request for reference and bibliographic references.
Since 2016, self-borrowing and self-returning points have been available to users.
The "Pencho Slaveykov" Regional Library is actively present on the Internet, communicating daily with readers through social networks, maintaining its own profiles on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Youtube.
The Varna Library is among the pioneers in publishing electronic bibliographies in Bulgaria. They can be found online here.
As a publisher of its own bibliographic production, the library has published over 200 directories. In 1997, the Pencho Slaveykov Regional Library was awarded the "Varna" Award - "For publishing and local history activities and popularization of the city's culture and history".
Main building
Varna 9000, 34 Slivnitsa Blvd
Book borrowing - tel.: + 359 52 659 153
Information center - tel./fax: + 359 52 659 132
E-mail: office@libvar.bg
Children's and high school department
Varna 9000, 110 Osmi Primorski Polk Blvd
tel. + 359 52 643 886; + 359 52 643 887
e-mail: srd@libvar.bg
Art department
Varna 9000, 3 Gen. Parensov Blvd
tel. + 359 52 643 711
E-mail: art@libvar.bg
www.libvar.bg
