Ivan Shishmanov Virtual Library. Bulgarian Literature in Translation

Research Team: Senior Asst. Prof. Teodora Tsankova, Senior Asst. Prof. Kalina Zakhova; Prof. Lyubka Lipcheva, Prof. Cleo Protohristova, Prof. Inna Peleva (Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski")

The Ivan Shishmanov Virtual Library is a modern digital library collection that presents classic and contemporary works by Bulgarian authors translated into English and German. It is an effective tool for easy and complete access to Bulgarian literature, designed for the widest possible readership in Bulgaria and abroad.

The Virtual Library is an open platform and is subject to supplementation with new editions of translated texts in English and German, as well as a consistent expansion of the language palette with translations into other European languages. It presents 335 books by Bulgarian authors and anthologies, as well as 33,465 digitized pages of translated editions of Bulgarian literature. The bibliographic corpus, which contains 1349 descriptions, summarizes the information from the collections of 54 European libraries. The construction, maintenance and access to the library fund comply with the European norms for protection of copyrights and distribution rights.

The Virtual Library provides readers with a full-text version of works by Bulgarian authors translated into German and English; a brief biography of each writer presented; bibliographic reference for the published translations; the translation options of the individual works; the bookstores in which the respective editions are stored; opportunity to build personal thematic anthologies.

The free access and the huge resource of digitized rare or hard-to-reach editions of translations of Bulgarian literature into German and English turn the Virtual Library into an authoritative academic directory, actively used by Bulgarianists and Slavists in Europe and the USA, from cultural institutes part of the Bulgarian diplomatic missions, from Bulgarian schools abroad.

The Library is a common meeting place for authors, translators, publishers, literary critics, scholars and readers, provided through the sections Translators Today, Translation Office and Forum.