The Culture Committee of the Bulgarian National Assembly failed to approve, at first reading, a bill on amendments to the Public Libraries Act to rename the National Library Sts. Cyril and Methodius to People’s Library. 2 MPs voted “for”, 4 voted “against” and 5 abstained.

The authors of the bill say that “like the National Assembly (Narodno Sabranie in Bulgarian, literally People’s Assembly) the Bulgarian National Bank (Balgarska Narodna Banka) the National Theatre (Naroden Teatar), the National Library too should officially gain a “people’s” status.”

National Library Director Assoc. Prof. Kalina Ivanova explained that there is no need to change the name because “it is the national culture institute of Bulgaria and has been assigned many functions under the Public Libraries Act”. “People” and “nation” have different definitions, she said and added she did not want to see the name of the National Library used for political aims.