Ph.D. Rositsa Petrova – Vasileva
Rositsa
Petrova – Vasileva was born on July 1, 1963. She
graduated from the School of Engineering and Architecture - Burgas, State
Library Institute - speciality "Library scinece and Bibliography / in 1985 /
Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“ / in 1990/, speciality "Pedagogy and
Psychology, specialized in Finance in Veliko Tarnovo University "St. St.
Cyril and Methodius“.
She has been working in the library since 1985 in "Reference and bibliographic department and the Regional History Department". She is an author of several valuable works in regional history of the series "Famous Revival of Sliven region“, as well as other bibliographies and collections. She became a directress of the library on April 9, 1992 after she won a competition. Since then she is seeking to transform the library into a modern cultural and information center with an European vision. She made many efforts to save the building from restitution, attracting quality team of lawyers, experts and consultants and created serious legal lobby for winning the case. She organized the repair of the building of the former Music School only with sponsors and created a new children's department after the fire in 1992. She made good contacts with the British Council - Sofia and a Centre in support of English learning was opened in the library in 1995 , which later grew in a Foreign languages center. She managed to defend the library's positions as a rapidly developing and a promising Library and Information Centre and since 2000 the library became a regional library for Sliven and Yambol regions. She is an uthor of more than 30 projects to various donors, thanks to which the library was equipped with modern computer equipment, a project for automation of the main library and bibliographic processes was developed, new literature was purchased, valuable bibliographies and collections were published. She restored the contacts with the Regional Library - Gera /Germany/, City and Regional Libraries in Pecs /Hungary/, the Regional Library - Ternopol /Ukraine/. Created new partnerships with city libraries of Dunayska streda /Slovakia/ and Kuopio /Finland/, with the International Festival Zmajeve dechje igre /Novi Sad, Serbia/, Andersen Festival /Sestri Levante, Italy/, the International Festival „Bibliobraz " /Moscow, Russia/, Festival of humor for children /Lazarevac, Serbia/, the International Festival „Vezaniy most“ /Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina/, the International festival of children's art „Meeting under the old olive tree“ /Bar, Montenegro/, European Agency for Development /Genoa, Italy/, Theatre Foundation „Aida“ /Verona, Italy/ etc. and the library began to work on projects funded by the EU. She developed the projects for building a local Eurodesk center and for the inclusion of the library in the national information network to disseminate knowledge about the EU, a project "EU through children's eyes" on the Government Communication Strategy for Bulgaria's accession to the EU, project "MOVIE – make one visual idea of Europe" and project "European Literary Marathon" - Bulgarian participation, etc. Since 2008 she is a regional coordinator of the project "Global Libraries - Bulgaria“, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is also a co-founder of the Association of festivals for children's literature from the Balkan countries /2008/. It was her idea to begin conducting the annual National Children's Book Festival in 1999 - a unique phenomenon in the cultural life of the country, which attracts many visitors and participants from abroad.
She
started the initiatives "Friday Literary Readings" and "Summer workshop“. In
her initiative the library first from the similar institutes in the country
began to work on the system of „delegated budgets“. She has an indisputable
contribution for the design and construction of an extension of the library,
opened in October 2009, which helped the modernization of „Sava Dobroplodni“
Regional Library and the implementation of new activities and services.
She has won several major awards and honors:
Ø A National Award "Golden Age" of
the Ministry of Culture – for her significant contribution to the
development and popularization of Bulgarian culture /in 2006/;
Ø An Honorary sign of the town of
Sliven - for her outstanding contributions to the development and validation
of „Sava Dobroplodni" Regional Llibrary as a modern cultural and information
center /2000/;
Ø An Honorary Diploma of the
Ministry of Culture – for her significant contribution to the development of
library work in Bulgaria /in 2000, 2005/;
Ø A Nomination for the award "A
Knight of the Book“ of The Association „Bulgarian Book“ /in 2009/.
Ø The Award "Little Prince" of the Association of Friends of the book "The Little Prince" - Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – for her contribute to the development of children's literature and intercultural cooperation in the Balkans / 2012 /;
Ø Prize of the International Festival "Zmajevi Dechje igre" - Novi Sad, Serbia /2014/- for her outstanding contribution to the development of children's literature and intercultural cooperation;
Ø The National award "Hristo G. Danov" of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Municipality of Plovdiv /2014/ - for her contribution to the organization and conduct of the National Children's Book Festival and its transformation into a prestigious cultural event with national and international prestige.