During International Scientific Conference “Donations and Donation Culture – Donation and the Culture of giving”, December 10 – 11, 2018 in the National Library of Bulgaria, besides numerous lectures by many experts, I had the pleasure to hold a presentation on the topic “Donations and fundraising: experiences of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. In my presentation, I emphasized a very important date, the 25th – 26th of August 1992, which the citizens of B&H and the world remember as one of the hardest days for National and University Library of B&H, when fire destroyed 2,000,000 books and manuscripts of priceless material with an enormous sentimental value. By following the topic of the Conference, with my presentation, I pointed out that it was this night, destruction of Library’s material goods, destruction of the spiritual, that was collected and kept by this Library, was a turning point in the stability of this Institution. Since that night, National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been in a constant and painstaking struggle with donations and projects, because of which National and University Library of B&H actually survives.
I also used this opportunity to have a conversation with director of the National Library of Bulgaria, prof. Krasimir Alexandrov, about mutual cooperation, library exchange and possible joint projects of these two libraries.
