Our Alma mater

The University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) is a state university, renamed by Parliament Decree on 29th Nov. 2010 after the Specialized Higher School of Library Studies and Information Technologies, voted as such in 2004. Throughout the years it was respectively: Established - 18th September 1950 by Government Decree as the State Library Institute and later renamed as The College of Library Studies by Parliament Decree;

ULSIT has BA, MA and PhD programs for the respective degrees that it has successfully passed accreditation procedures.

ULSIT has modern facilities to train its students. The specifically designed and built building includes a Ceremonial Hall,; specialized seminar rooms; auditoria; computer laboratory by the name of John Atanasoff with modern computer rooms with Intranet and LAN, non-stop Internet access, where contemporary information and communication technologies are taught; a Library and Information Center that can seat 150 readers. A library stock of over 52,000 entries and book storage for 80,000 documents; there is an IP Point – information and consultant center on copyright law; Career center for assisting students in their job-seeking activities; a Museum-educational collection called Spiritual Pursuit and Leadership; museum exhibition of the contemporary Bulgarian spirituality; Publishing house “Za Bukvite – O pismeneh”; St. Nicolay Chapel; a phonetic study room; Lecturers’ rooms and administrative staff rooms; a meeting room; a modern gym with a large court; tennis courts; fitness room ; canteen; a coffee house.

Built for more than 60 years, ULSIT meets the demands of over 2,000 students and over 150 lecturers. The specialized seminar rooms and studies have rich educational collections most of which have become a bibliographic rarity.

It takes four years to do a „BA” in the full-time and part-time forms of study. Alongside the knowledge in their major studies, students obtain very good instruction in information and communication technologies, English, Russian, sports. „MA” programs can be full-time or part-time and some programs offer the distance learning form as an option. It is three semesters for those with ULSIT BA degree and at other universities in the country or abroad.

ULSIT offers PhD programs in the full-time, part-time or self-study forms of instruction.
There is training practice and specialized practice in the last-year of the university study at prestigious institutions, organizations and companies.

Graduates of ULSIT can work for libraries, publishers, book trading companies, the state administration and the information business, information centers and services, archive departments, museums, galleries and other cultural institutions.
ULSIT has a rich publishing activity for scientific works – monographs, the annual collection of “ULSIT Works”, the Cyril and Methodius “Za Bukvite- O Pismeneh” newspaper, the scientific magazine “Izdatel” together with the Library Studies and Social sciences Department of The University of Veliko Tarnovo, Proceedings collections of the annually held International Conference on 1st November, dedicated to the Leaders of the National Revival Day, which is an official ULSIT holiday, seminar proceedings, books, learning materials, etc.

ULSIT has a standard university „Erasmus” chart, which allows mobility Lifelong Learning students to study at different universities abroad for a certain period of time.

ULSIT is actively involved in the international professional life, takes part in international cooperation in compliance with bi-lateral agreements with similar institutions in Russia, Germany, France, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey, etc. ULSIT is a member of IFLA – The International Federation of Library Associations, a member of LIBER – the Association of European Research Libraries, a member of ICOM – the International Council of Museums, the National Technical Committee on Standardization in the Archive, Library, Information and Publishing Activity (TK 16), a member of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association, etc.

In 2005 the Library and Information center at ULSIT opened the museum exhibition of The Contemporary Bulgarian Spirit. The idea for its creation is dictated by the need to preserve the spiritual identity of today’s information society. The exhibition has gathered the culture and sense of time – from Nikolay Haytov’s contemplation to Stefan Danailov’s artistic spirit, the interweaving of art and tradition, personalities and achievements. So far, artifacts and documents of 11 Bulgarian intellectuals have been exhibited there (Anton Donchev, Liubomir Levchev, Nikolay Haitov, Jordan Radichkov, Angel Balevski, Vezhdi Rashidov, Bozhana Dimitrova, Stefan Danailov, Ivo Papazov, Kremena Zotova, Hristo Drumev).