WHERE DO WE SEE GLBF TEN YEARS FROM NOW?
On 16 December 2025, a working meeting with the Board of Trustees and members of the Board of Directors was held at the 13 Centuries of Bulgaria Foundation to discuss the future direction of Global Libraries Bulgaria Foundation.
Executive Director Spaska Tarandova reviewed the Foundation’s pre-2014 strategic framework from the time of its establishment with an operational institutional grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and presented an overview of the Foundation’s work over the past 10 years in fulfilment of its mission and goals.
A highlight from the review included the continuous improvement in librarians’ professional skills throughout the GLBF network of 1000+ libraries. GLBF monitors global trends in library and information services and aims to adapt them to build librarians’ knowledge and skills for the digital age. Today, Bulgaria’s librarians from large regional libraries to small village chitalishta are equipped to mentor and train their local communities in ICT, green skills for the labour market, information and media literacy, civic participation and other important needs.
The governing body discussed GLBF’s future development opportunities and how each supporting partner can contribute to the Foundation’s sustainability and expansion.
The meeting was attended by Nikolay Doinov, Chairman of the Bulgarian National Youth Council and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and members: Ashot Kazaryan, Deputy Minister of Culture; Bisera Yosifova, Executive Director of the 13 Centuries Bulgaria Foundation; Vanya Grashkina, Deputy Chairman of the Bulgarian National Youth Council; and Asen Antov, Head of the Policies, Analyses and Methodology Department, in the “Digital Transformation” Directorate at the Ministry of e-Governance. Also in attendance were Mihail Boyadzhiev, Chairman of the Board, and members Teodora Dacheva and Ventsislav Velev. The meeting was moderated by Elitsa Barakova and Lyudmila Atanasova from the BCause Foundation.
The meeting ended with thanks to retiring members of the Management Board: Veselin Todorov, Assoc. Prof. Alexander Nikolov, Boyko Lechev, Dr. Silva Nalbantyan–Khacheryan and Tinka Spasova.