Linked across borders and time through Europeana

Europe’s digital museum and library, Europeana, helped Varna’s “Pencho Slaveykov” Library celebrate its 130 anniversary with a national competition bringing culture online to schools across Bulgaria and brought the idea of digitalization of Europe’s cultural heritage popular in Bulgaria by a traveling exhibition, called “Linked across borders and time” touring libraries across the country.

As part of the celebratory events for the 130th Anniversary of Varna Library, a national contest “My Europeana” was launched in schools across Bulgaria at the beginning of 2013. The aim of the contest was to encourage high school students to explore and discover the rich cultural treasures of Europeana and to write an essay or make a short video on their favorite place, person or event from Bulgaria’s cultural and historical heritage. Hundreds of essays and videos were received from students on subjects ranging from the first Bulgarian woman pilot that commanded commercial flights and is the only woman that landed a heavy plane in difficult weather on Heathrow to the real history of the famous writer Aleko Konstantinov.

In the summer, Europeana and Varna Library also organized a travelling exhibition, called “Linked across borders and time” to bring Bulgarian heritage into contact with objects and images from elsewhere in Europe. The exhibition toured the regional libraries of 8 of the Bulgarian biggest cities. Through the exhibits from Europeana, visitors could discover more about both people and places close to home and those across the continent. Visitors could explore Russe, called “Little Vienna” because of its architectural heritage, the monument “Virgin Mary” patron of the Bulgarian city Haskovo and the French city Lourdes, Varna and Nice – the “pearls” of two seas, Neolithic village mounds, discovered in Stara Zagora and Voucluse, France.