BOOK DONATION

CSD launched its Book Donation Program back in 1990, when it established a part­nership with the US Sabre Foundation. CSD started receiving annually several ship­ments of US publications donated by the Sabre Foundation. Since 1990, as an offi­cial partner to the Foundation, CSD has received and distributed countrywide 16 shipments of more than 330,000 books worth over ,000,000.

Sabre's Book Donation Philosophy

Sabre's Book Donation Program is valued by overseas NGOs because of Sabre's steadfast adherence to the policy that when it comes to the educational needs of developing and transitional countries, indigenous organizations know best. The keystone of Sabre's book program is that it is demand-driven. Rather than trying to send as many books as possible, regardless of demonstrated need. Sabre gives its overseas partners the opportunity to select books and CD-ROMs from detailed inventory offering lists that are sent electronically. Only titles and quantities specifically requested by its partners are shipped by Sabre. Those titles are new, high-quality, up-to-date books selected by Sabre from the offerings made by donating publishers. In the selection process, Sabre's rule-of-thumb is that something which is of no value in the U.S. is usually equally valueless overseas. The schools, universities, libraries and individuals that benefit from Sabre's Book Donation Program are not regarded as the recipients of aid for whom "any book is better than no book at all" - they are regarded instead as customers without money.
Sabre Foundation, USA

These activities continue a long tradition in Bulgaria of donations aimed at contributing to education and public knowledge. CSD's book donation was also quite timely as it came at a moment when educational and cultural budgets were shrinking both nationally and locally.

It assisted  Bulgarian universities, libraries, hospitals, and individuals by helping them staying in touch with international scientific exchanges in a period when knowledge economy is taking root globally.

Areas of knowledge covered by the donations have varied widely - from heart surgery to telecommunications, while some of the latest donations were the first to include, in addition to books, CD-ROMs, as well as audio and video­tapes.

During the year 2000 an exhibition was opened first on February 17th in the Medical University of Plovdiv, and a second one on March 9 in the Central Medical Library in Sofia. The donation included more than 2200 titles with medical atlases, textbooks, reference materials, dictionaries and monographs from all branches of medicine. These donations are a part of the Medical Library in Sofia.

The donations include more than 2200 series of presentations throughout the country of the medical literature donation received in July 1999. They also include educational CDs, video and audiotapes and slides by Williams and Wilkins Publishers provided  by  Sabre  Foundation, amounting to over ,6 m. The books have been published within the last three years.

On September 29, 2000 the Center for the Study of Democracy received a new shipment of donated literature of the Sabre Foundation. It contained 15,984 books in 321 titles, covering medicine, economy, computer tech­nologies, etc.