Somewhere in the deep midstream of history, from the first rush of Bulgarians towards teaching and education through the limits of time and to this days are still alive the desire and need of Ruse citizens to have their ideal urban library.

Ruse library is one of the longest-established spiritual centres in Bulgaria. It is a logical conclusion to the countrywide revival, a part of our spiritual rising and legitimizing to the world after the liberation in 1878.

The beginning is in 1888, when patriotic cultural functionaries, with the material support of the City Municipality began the creation of Ruse library. These are members of the educational society Dunav, founded a year earlier in Ruse, in September 1887. In Article 1 of the Charter of the company was recorded very important and special point, namely: "... to establish an urban library". The library was firstly located on 1st Knyazheska street at price of 1200 leva annual rent in the house of Joseph Daynelov, a friend of George Sava Rakovski.

During the management of Mayor Peter Vinarov (1851-1926) on February 11, 1888, the Municipal Council took the historic decision to open Ruse City Library. The councilors granted voted yet in 1887, 1500 leva for the purchase of books and on each edition in the fund is stamped "Ruse urban municipal library."

So over the years, with persistence and consistency Ruse citizens managed to get through the Ministry of Education an annual subsidy of 7000 to 8000 leva. The requirement was the city to provide a separate place for the library, with access for all citizens of Ruse to the books. So little by little Dunav society assigns all its premises for the needs of the library, and its entire inventory and paper fund purchased by municipal and corporate money.

The first officially appointed in 1891 librarian is the music teacher Atanas Paunov. The municipality gives 5000 leva for the official opening and maintenance of the library. The newspaper "Rusenets" N11, September 22, 1893, describes the need for credit at least 15,000 leva to open library branches in the suburbs, to remove entered bet that readers leave for the taken books, so that the use of literature and periodical press is free. All this, of course, occurs decades later. Among those who have paved this particularly important spiritual trail in the cultural history of Ruse are Dimitar Marinov, director and Nicola Bobchev, literature teacher in the male high school; Ivan Bozhkov, Chairman of the District Court; Todor Todorov, a lawyer and Hristo Krastev - a merchant. Patriotic and progressive local citizens from all activities and professions have developed the first internal rules and based on them have formed a Selection Committee for purchase of new literature.

This so-called "Library Committee" became the pillar of the literary work and decades later its Chairman obligatory is the mayor of Ruse. This makes the budget, subscription, provide literature, appoints and dismisses librarians.

During the years of socialism responsible not only for educational, but also ideological functions, the institution remains true place for local citizens to contact with the boundless spiritual wealth of one of the most modern European cities in Bulgaria. It is through the library the city managed to keep its charismatic broadcast of original and inimitable artistic city, much more colorful and different from the greyness and monotony of straight-line doctrine of harmoniously developed person.

Today "Lyuben Karavelov" Regional Library has entirely new messages and activities. They are dedicated to the modern interpretation of history, to our technological future and our knowledge of the world in the diffusion of cultures and customs in the dynamics of European processes and the specific needs of the modern man of the 21st century.

Or in brief, we are may be going on the way of the creators of Ruse library, with the insight of our patron and spiritual apologist Lyuben Karavelov, who said: "Action and counteraction - therein lays the whole story of mankind. People rush forward today to come back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and pull out back just in order to gather their energy and to jump over the large space ahead..."