Library of Geological Institute of BAS
Short History
The library at the Geological Institute dates back to 1889, when the collection of geological literature at the Royal Museum of Natural History in Sofia was created.
The first steps of the library are associated with the names of prominent Bulgarian geologists - Prof. G. Zlatarski, Academician G. Bonchev, Art. cor. Bogomil Radoslavov. In 1947 the Geological Institute was founded with a library attached to it, which accepted the geological collection of literature of the geological department of the Royal Museum of Natural History. Thus, the library's collection includes a collection of 30 valuable books with the ex-libris of Tsar Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg and his son Tsar Boris III. Of special historical value from this collection are the works of Ami Boué, F. Toula, J. Cvijic, D. Dana, as well as the works of famous Bulgarian geologists G. Bonchev, J. Radev, Il. Stoyanov, S. Vatsev. The oldest collections in the library fund are in the field of petrography, mineralogy and hydrology. Of particular historical importance are the materials for hydrogeological research, which document the discovery of Bulgarian mineral springs in the XVIII and XIX and XX centuries.
The library has a loan office, a reading room and 6 depots for storing books and funds.
The number of received periodical titles in 2023 is: 40 magazines, 13 series, 8 academic journals (editions of BAS), a total of 61 titles. The general book fund of the library until 31.12.2023 is 82883 book units.
Worktime: working days from 9:00AM until 5:00PM
Phone: (+359 87) 7362797
e-mail: geolib@geology.bas.bg
Library Fund
Over the years, the institute has created a good tradition of collaboration and collaboration between scientists and librarians.
Special credit for this goes to the scientific director of the library Prof. Hristo Spasov, who personally searches for and collects many of the valuable collections of prominent Bulgarian geologists, preserved today in the library. In a letter dated February 11, 1952, Acad. Strashimir Dimitrov, director of the institute in the period (1950-1960), proposed to the Central Library a program for the development of the Geological Library. This first program indicates the main line for building the library fund with a predominance of stratigraphy, tectonics, magnetism and search for iron ore deposits. In 1960 the profile for acquisition was specified - clarification of the geological conditions for prospecting of oil and gas, ores, non-ferrous and rare metals, minerals, thermo-mineral waters. Currently, the library has a rich collection of literature in the following areas: historical geology, stratigraphy, lithology, petrography, geotectonics, hydrogeology, geochemistry, mineralogy, economic, engineering, regional and marine geology, as well as the latest field - geoecology. The Geological Library is built to the largest complex scientific organization in the field of geology in our country and is one of the leading special libraries in BAS. The library stores all specialized editions of the Geological Institute. It serves a significant contingent of over 460 registered readers, who use over 20,000 volumes of literature annually.