The Library of MU-Varna – a tradition in the digital age

The Library of the Medical University-Varna was established in 1961 together with the founding of the university as the Higher Medical Institute (HMI). The beginning of the library fund was laid with donations made by various libraries in the country, after which the fund began to be completed with university funds, book exchange and donated textbooks. The first director of the library was Marina Ivanova. A system of catalogs and card files was created, and a reference and information fund was created. The internal and international book exchange of the library was organized. Bibliographies of the scientific works of the lecturers from HMI-Varna were published. In the following years, the library's staff grew, Totka Dimitrova and Stefka Rogleva were appointed.

In 1972, a reference and information department was formed. Violeta Kozhuharova and Gergana Kalcheva, replaced in 1975 by Zhivka Andreeva, began preparing bibliographic references, citation references and impact factor references. The same year, on May 24, the MU-Varna library was awarded an award by the Committee for Art and Culture. In 1975, Petrana Mileva joined the library. Three years later, in 1978, Dr. Dimitar Tomov joined the library team - as a bibliographer, and Sabka Atanasova - as a technical contractor. The reference and information department grew into the Scientific Information Bureau. In 1980, Galina Stoyanova joined the bureau. Later, she worked on a project of the Seventh Framework Programme of the EU for scientific research. Darina Encheva and Rumyana Radeva are working on the processing of new editions and the creation of catalogs. Yolanta Latoha, Evelina Beneva and Svetlana Mircheva – as a document reproducer – have been appointed to serve readers in the book lending and reading rooms.

From 1982 to 2014, the library director was Petrana Mileva. In 1989, she introduced the use of the electronic version of the current information publication Current Contents on Diskette (CCOD), the Life Sciences series and later the Clinical Medicine series. This was the year of their appearance on the international market and the library of VMI-Varna was a pioneer in their use in Bulgaria. The library book exchange expanded and was enriched with new international contacts and partners. After 1991, the library received full technical and computer equipment under projects funded by the Open Society Foundation. In 1993, the library of MU-Varna initiated a joint project with other university medical libraries, funded under the PHARE program, for the supply of medical literature and scientific databases. Medical libraries receive MEDLINE on CD-ROM, local area network equipment and library software Graphical Library Automation Systems (GLAS) – 1995, for creating an electronic catalog. In 1994, a programmer was appointed to the library – Eng. Zhaneta Radkova, who trained specialists in working with international library software. Darina Encheva, Rumyana Radeva and Zhivka Andreeva built the electronic catalogs of books and periodicals available on the Internet.

In 1995, the library was completely reconstructed and modernized. It became a modern European-style library, with a new interior and functionality, bright and spacious reading rooms. The electronic library catalog is available on the university computer network - both in the library and in its branches. The electronic catalog allows for various types of searches in the library's holdings.

In 1997, the university began subscribing to the first full-text electronic and online databases with its own funds: MEDLINE on CD, ProQuest Medical Library and UpToDate. Galina Stoyanova and Dr. Dimitar Tomov organized the training of users (teachers and students) for independent work with foreign databases and document selection.

През 2003 г. е внедрен нов библиотечен софтуер – „Автоматизирани библиотеки“, разработен по българските библиотечни стандарти.

At the same time, the library acquired a multifunctional copier to activate the virtual service “Electronic Document Delivery Service”. A subscription to the Cochrane Library on CD-ROM began. The acquisitions were made under a project agreement between MU-Varna and Inselspital Hospital, Bern. Teachers and students receive scanned journal articles by email, which is a novelty in information services.

In 2004, a current annual subscription to HINARI – the Initiative for Online Access to Scientific Research in the International Health Network – began. Full-text articles and archives of nearly 1,000 scientific medical journals are included. The scientific database can be used not only from the library workstations, but also from home computers.

Since 2009, the library has been working with global databases such as Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus and InCites, whose licensed access is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. They provide both bibliographic and abstract information, as well as full-text articles published in leading international scientific journals and collections. Since 2014, its own subscription to AccessMedicine has been launched - a collection of over 75 fundamental interactive textbooks for medicine by McGraw Hill Publishing. Students and teachers can work and use the database from their home computers via remote access. Through the library, MU-Varna has become the first medical educational institution in the country to provide access to a platform with electronic textbooks for students and teachers.

In 2012, the entire computer equipment of the library was replaced and the places for free computer access were doubled. The modernization is under a project of the MRDPW under the Operational Program “Regional Development” on the topic: “Reconstruction and modernization of the library and provision of an accessible environment for people with disabilities”. New equipment has been implemented - turnstiles; self-service photocopiers in the central library, Medical College and the Faculty of Pharmacy; digital equipment, through which the construction of digital collections of the textbook fund has started; a machine for dusting books; a station for self-borrowing and returning books; computers for the electronic reading rooms, a place for the blind, a station/kiosk for self-service - borrowing and returning literature.

The storage facilities have been renovated and are equipped with new, modern rack models. An access control system with personal authorization (contactless card) has been built; a video surveillance system for all reading rooms through continuous recording. RFID tags (radio-frequency identification) have been introduced for marking, identification and control of library units, which facilitates inventory and borrowing/return, and in case of theft, detectors on the entrance doors are activated. Full access to the library's information resources is ensured for persons in disadvantaged situations - disabled people and people with impaired vision (wheelchair access and a station for the blind).

Electronic reading rooms with online access to library collections and subscribed information portals have been opened at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and St. Marina University Hospital.

In 2012, the library established a Digital Resources Department. Eng. Desislava Kostova started working there as a digital resources programmer. In 2015, Eng. Milena Shipkova and Eng. Milen Yovchev, software developer, were appointed to the department. They digitized the library collection and implemented long-term storage of data in digital format.

A digital collection of books and textbooks from the library's holdings is being created, which is accessible through the library catalog. Access is available from computers in the central library, the libraries of the Medical College and the Faculty of Pharmacy, the electronic reading rooms and the branches. Since 2021, secure remote access to the digital textbook collection has been provided through the DSpace platform.

The library is also proud of its collection of over 500 old books on medicine, pharmacology and dentistry, printed between 1830 and 1950. The books are located in special display cases for storage, and a large part of them have been digitized to make them accessible to users.

The library has a branch structure and provides materials to the libraries of the Medical College, the Faculty of Pharmacy and the university branches in Sliven, Shumen and Veliko Tarnovo. All branches have computer rooms and internet access.

The “Books” fund includes educational literature, monographs, reference literature, atlases, collections, conference reports. Specialized reading rooms are equipped with literature on various disciplines and courses. The “Periodics” fund grows annually with the annual circulation of about 160 titles. MU-Varna provides an annual subscription to Bulgarian and foreign magazines in paper format, as well as in electronic form.

Since 2014, the director of the library has been Rumyana Radeva. Before that, she was the deputy director, working in the library of MU-Varna since 1991. Over the years, in parallel with the library activity, she also combined the functions of organizational secretary of the journals "Scripta Scientifica Medica" and "Varna Medical Forum".

From 2014 to 2015, the library staff began to be renewed. Alexander Nenkov, Sergey Glinkov, Marina Klisurova and Teodor Ivanov were successively appointed as bibliographer-informants, Nevena Atanasova, Kremena Zaharieva, Vessela Angelova, Svetla Doncheva, Verzhiniya Ardasheva and Kostadinka Ignatova as librarians, and Petar Dzhabilov as the organizer of library activities.

In 2015, the library began organizing exhibitions and became a center not only of scientific but also of artistic life at the university. Among the most interesting and visited events is the exhibition “History of Medicine and Healthcare in Varna and the Region” and the exhibition-bazaar of medical literature, organized jointly with the “Educational Centre”. In 2017, the poetic and literary evenings “Under the Magic Pen of Physicians” began. In the library, doctors and students present their works in search of the intersection between speech and medicine as art.

През 2015 г. библиотеката на МУ-Варна става член на LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche) – Асоциация на европейските научни библиотеки. Членството в LIBER осигурява неограничен достъп до научния портал DART-Europe –платформа за отворен достъп до дисертации (над  1,326,500 публикувани дисертации от 579 университета от 29 европейски страни).

The MU-Varna Library initiated (2015) the creation of Google profiles for the university academic staff in Google Scholar, with the bibliographer-informants practically implementing this for nearly 70 percent of the newly created over 400 profiles. Each profile is associated with the MU-Varna website and a confirmed corporate email address. The effect is not only quick, but also visible: the possibility of potential citation of our authors increases; the opportunities for scientific collaboration increase and are facilitated both at the individual/author level and at the institutional level.

In 2016, the library created a university institutional Repository – Medical Academic Repository. It is bilingual (in Bulgarian and English), with open access and is one of the first in the country. The scientific works of MU-Varna, presented in the Repository, are directly visible in the DART-Europe portal, which provides visibility, the opportunity to increase citation and collaborations for interdisciplinary research.

The MU-Varna Library initiated the promotion and implementation of the principles of open access in science, as well as the adoption of the MU-Varna Open Access to Scientific Research Policy, voted on by the MU-Varna Academic Council in 2016.

A new branch of the library was opened at the Faculty of Pharmacy in 2016. The Pharmacy Library has over 50 workstations and a multimedia room for self-study and seminars.

In 2017, the new website of the MU-Varna Library was launched, with a modern vision and functionality. It, like the Repository, is bilingual – in Bulgarian and English. In addition to the convenience of using scientific databases and electronic resources, the site supports news related to information provision, events and current information for both students and lecturers. A new type of online interactivity for requests, inquiries and inquiries is also provided. The modern dynamic website of the Library provides constant access to the available databases and facilitates users through new e-services.

The digitization of part of the collection continues, which is provided to students and teachers online through authorized access. In 2019, the university provided new equipment for a digital center in the library: a digitizing machine and image processing software; a document scanner; multifunction devices and desktop scanners.

In 2020, the new open access library software KOHA was developed. The platform meets the requirements of new information technologies for processing, classifying library units and creating a modern internet catalog with a modern interface, enabling direct connection to other information databases. The library's electronic resources support scientific platforms with interactive textbooks and atlases, digital collections of textbooks and monographs.

In 2020-2021, the collection of digitized textbooks and books increased many times to support the learning process in a remote environment during the COVID pandemic. The digital textbook collection has secure remote access through the DSpace platform and the Blackboard learning platform. Access is in accordance with the Copyright Protection Act through a username and password. The digitization of the collection and the already created functional remote access platforms ensure the smooth and effective provision of the learning and scientific process in the created pandemic situation and the need for non-attendance learning.

The library maintains subscription or provides temporary access to leading world databases for medical literature such as AccessMedicine, AccessPharmacy, AccessSurgery, MEDLINE Complete, Springer, UpToDate, Tieme, Elsevier's STATdx and RADPrimer, Acland's Video Atlas of Human Anatomy, EBSCO Discovery Service, Oxford Journals Collection, Taylor and Francis Collections, Thieme, etc. Databases such as Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus and InCites have licensed online access, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. They provide both bibliographic and abstract information, as well as full-text articles published in leading foreign scientific journals and collections. The databases can be used free of charge and through registered remote access from home computers and mobile devices. The library team provides bibliographic references, citation and impact factor references, consultations for publication in Bulgarian and foreign journals, searches and systematizes publications on a selected topic from subscribed foreign full-text databases and other specialized sources of scientific information.

Currently, the library is a modern scientific-information and technologically equipped center, in accordance with the dynamics in science and the requirements for searching, delivering and exchanging quality information. In addition to the educational functions of supporting the learning process at MU-Varna, the library focuses its activities on organizing and presenting the university's scientific production in specialized online databases, with the aim of popularizing scientific results and opportunities for cooperation.

The library is the recipient of the Silver Sign of MU-Varna.