World Book and Copyright Day

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date in 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
It was a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date. The big amount of precious and various book collections, stored in the National Library St.St. Cyril and Methodius (picture in the left) make it the most important and largest book depository on the territory of Bulgaria, as well as one of the most significant and richest libraries on the Balkan peninsula. The idea for its establishment was first given by the teacher Michail Bubotinov in 1878 and was warmly welcomed by the authorities at that time. By the end of 1878, it was already working, and in 1879, it became an official state establishment, bearing the name Bulgarian National Library. Currently, the library has a rich fund of over 7 000 000 items, including manuscripts, archive documents, periodical issues, graphical issues and albums, mapping materials, note editions, patents and standards, official issues, gramophone records, recording tapes, portraits and pictures, slides, microfilms, thesis works, CD-ROMs.