History

The Library of Agricultural University Plovdiv is one of the oldest specialized agricultural libraries in Bulgaria. Founded in 1945 (nineteen forty-fifth) when the Agricultural University in Plovdiv was established.

The library is a legal member of the Bulgarian Information Consortium (BIC), a collective member of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association (BLIA) and a member of the Foundation National Academic Library and Information System (NALIS), a member of the International Standard Identifier for Libraries (ISIL).

Stoyan Indzhev and Rusin Filipov were erudite library specialists, Directors of the Plovdiv Regional Library, who laid the foundations of the library work in Southern Bulgaria.

In 1946-1959 Rusin Filipov worked at the Higher Agricultural Institute, and in 1947 he was appointed as a curator of the Library. Thanks to him, in just three years, the Library had become a significant unit serving teachers and students with the most necessary materials for teaching and research. He was the Director of the Library from 1947 to 1964. Then the librarians were only four.

In the beginning, the Library worked on an area of 130 square meters, with two staff members, 40 reading seats and 1535 volumes of books. The priority of the library workers was the formation of the library funds through donations and purchases. In 1960 the Library took the first steps to organize book exchanges with foreign universities and research institutes.

In the 1950s, the library fund increased significantly, and it reached 28,449 volumes. The absence of a separate building created difficulties.  In 1953 the Higher Agricultural Institute was divided into two independent institutes - the Institute of Food Industry and the Higher Agricultural Institute with two faculties: agronomy and viticulture and horticulture, located in the building of the former French college “St. Augustine”. This also required that the books be constantly moved from the building of the former Trade school in the former French college to its particular place in the Higher Agricultural Institute in the 1960s.

An interesting fact from the history of the Agricultural University and its Library is that the famous Bulgarian writer Dimitar Dimov was a Professor of the anatomy and physiology of domestic animals. He was a lecturer at the Agricultural University. His famous novel "Tyutyun" (Tobacco) was written at the University in 1951. 

In 1967 a qualitative change in the work of the Library occurred. Then it was transferred to the newly built educational complex and occupied the specially constructed and furnished book depositories. The material and technical base were quite good: a reading room for students, a separate, independent reading room for teachers, and enough rooms for the staff. For its library and information activities, the Library at the Higher Agricultural Institute was then repeatedly chosen as the country's leader among university libraries.

In the period 1965-1976, the director of the Library was Hristina Bogdanova, and the library had five employees. 

After Hristina Bogdanova, Hristo Naidenov (1977-1986) was appointed as Director of the Library. He successfully coordinated the units in the information center, namely the Library, the printing base and the photo laboratory. Among other things, Naidenov turned out to be an up-and-coming leader and in his time the Library became a leader among the university libraries in Bulgaria. 

In 1990 the library staff increased to include 17 specialists. For a short time, in the period 1987-1990, the Director of the Library was Lalka Toseva, and from 1990 to 1996, the management was taken over by Georgi Tsenkin.

In 1971 the bibliographic reference and information department was established.
Since 1978, the Library has used an Automatic information system for Bibliographical references. 
By 1979, the book exchange with foreign and related institutions accounted for 15% of the total amount of literature acquired (750 volumes of library materials per year, including 135 titles of periodicals, 56 titles of journals and 200 monographs). It covered 311 academies, research institutes, agricultural higher education institutions and other organizations from 32 countries: Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Japan, USA, Canada, Morocco, Algeria, Mozambique and others (Gorbanova, 1979).

In 1986 the automation of library processes began. Today, they include editions until 1986 only.

Since 1992 the Library has used the specialized library software “Automated Library” of PC-TM Company. The number of computer workplaces was seven. 

In the period 1997-2006, the Director of the University library was Ekaterina Anastasova. In the period 2006-2017, the library director was Svetla Kukleva.

Since 2017 the Library has been managed by Dr. Petya Georgieva, and by 2022, the entire staff included only five librarians.