For me, the 2026 Mortenson Center Associates Program has been an experience that educates, inspires, and transforms you. It is a program about the people behind libraries. About leadership that begins with trust. About knowledge that has meaning only when it serves the community. About technologies that are valuable only when they remain in service to people. About professional dreams that become bolder when they are supported by others.
From the very first evening, I felt that this was a program created with heart. The welcome dinner was the first sign that the Mortenson Center builds community, not simply a schedule of training sessions and visits. In a group of participants from different countries, languages, and professional contexts, it very quickly became clear that we belonged to something shared.
Leadership That Begins with People
One of the most valuable threads running through the program was the theme of leadership. Mortenson does not speak about leadership as a position, title, or administrative function. Here, leadership was presented as an attitude – toward people, change, community, the institution, and the future.
The DiSC Assessment helped me look at myself more clearly – at my strengths, the energy with which I act, my drive for results, but also the need to give more space to different voices within the team. The Change Management sessions made me realize once again that every change in a library begins with the people who need to understand it, accept it, and recognize it as their own.
This is a lesson I will carry with me for a long time: good library leadership is not simply about pointing out the direction. It is about creating the conditions for people to move in that direction together.
Libraries as Spaces of Impact
Throughout the program, one word kept returning again and again: impact. In the Program Logic Model, we learned how to connect resources, activities, outcomes, and change. In the assessment sessions, we talked about how libraries can demonstrate their value. In the exercises on user value and library value, we reflected on what the library means to the student, the researcher, the faculty member, the child, the family, the person with a disability, and the person seeking information, calm, direction, or community.
The program also introduced us to many important topics related to the future of libraries – artificial intelligence, metadata, virtual and augmented reality, digital learning, podcasts, NotebookLM, OpenRefine, research data, digital accessibility, and AI literacy.
These topics were extremely valuable professionally, but the most important takeaway for me was a deeply human one: technologies are powerful when they serve people. AI can support, accelerate, structure, suggest ideas, and open up new possibilities. But it cannot replace the professional ethics, critical thinking, context, empathy, and human judgment of the librarian.
In a world of information overload, cognitive noise, and constant digital connectivity, libraries have an even more important mission. They are places that help people not get lost in the abundance of information. One metaphor remained especially powerful for me: the librarian as an information shepherd – someone who guides, directs, selects, protects, and helps information reach the right people, at the right moment, in the right way. This is an image that beautifully describes the future of our profession.
Libraries Without Borders
Our trips and visits showed us different faces of the contemporary library. At OCLC, we saw the scale of global library cooperation and the power of shared knowledge. At the Ohio State University Libraries and the Research Commons, we saw the academic library as a partner in research, data management, and research impact. At Westerville Public Library, Champaign Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Urbana Free Library, and Arthur Library, we saw public libraries as the living hearts of their communities.
At ALA, I felt the strength of professional solidarity and the international library community. At the University of Chicago, we saw the academic library as a strategic infrastructure for knowledge, access, and preservation. At the MacArthur Foundation Library, we understood how important a specialized library can be to the work of a major organization – as a place of reliable information, institutional memory, and evidence-based decision-making.
And in Springfield, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and in Abraham Lincoln’s home, history became a living experience. There, I felt even more strongly that libraries preserve the past so that the future can be more informed, freer, and more connected to its roots.
One of the most moving moments for me as a Bulgarian was the encounter with Bulgarian cultural memory across the ocean – with Slavonic-Bulgarian History, preserved with respect in an academic collection in Ohio. At that moment, the library became a bridge between Bulgaria and the world, between the past and the present, between personal memory and global knowledge.
Accessibility, Inclusion, and Care
Another very powerful theme was accessibility. We talked about digital accessibility, physical access, services for people who cannot use standard printed text, Talking Books, and users with different needs, learning styles, and life circumstances.
Accessibility is not a technical requirement. It is a moral choice and a professional responsibility. It is the library’s way of saying: “You have a place here.”
The principle “Ask your users” stayed with me as especially important. A truly good library does not assume what people need. It asks, listens, observes, and learns. It changes. And it continues to build its services around the real lives of its communities.
Community, Home, and Belonging
The strongest thread that ran through the entire program was belonging. I saw it in the Library Buddy system – that small but deeply meaningful gesture of support that makes an unfamiliar environment feel closer. I saw it in the homes that opened their doors to us. I saw it at Thanksgiving dinner in June, when, in the pouring rain, we talked about holidays, home, family, and love. I saw it at the international lunch, when each country was represented through homemade food, and Bulgarian pitka, moussaka, and tarator became our way of bringing Bulgaria to Urbana-Champaign.
There, around one shared table, I understood something very simple and very important: cultures meet through taste, laughter, gesture, a recipe, a question, a shared plate, and the desire to understand another person. Around that table, we were not only sharing food. We were sharing belonging.
The visit to the home of an Amish family was also a deeply powerful experience. What impressed me most was the idea that when a person crosses the threshold of home, the outside world stays outside. And perhaps, sometimes, disconnecting from the digital world is not a loss, but a return to what matters most.
Gratitude to the People Who Made This Possible
At the end of this program, the strongest feeling that remains with me is gratitude.
Gratitude to the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs – for the vision, the scale, the professionalism, and the opportunity to be part of an international community of library leaders.
Gratitude to Clara M. Chu – for her inspiring leadership, generosity, human warmth, and deep commitment to international library cooperation. Her vision could be felt in every part of the program – in the topics, the meetings, the selection of institutions, the respect for cultural diversity, and the understanding that libraries have not only a professional mission, but also a social one.
Gratitude to Vuyo Jamieson and Gladys Kemboi – for their support, attention, organization, patience, and constant care. They were with us throughout the entire program – in the big moments and in the small details, in the schedule, in the trips, in the everyday questions, and in the practical needs. And gratitude to Esra Coscun, who was always there with her warm smile and friendly attitude toward each and every one of us.
Special thanks to my Library Buddy, Lisa Hinchliffe, who, together with her husband Joe, gave me a truly American Friday evening filled with wonderful music, delicious food, and beautiful emotions.
I am also deeply grateful for the support of Amani Ayad and Barbara Ford, who encouraged us throughout the program and gave us valuable advice on how to prepare our presentations, how to speak in front of an audience, and how to present our ideas with confidence and clarity. With their warmth, smiles, and personal dedication, they were an inspiring example of professionalism and humanity, as well as living proof that anything is possible when you believe in yourself and have people beside you who believe in you.
Gratitude to all the lecturers, hosts, librarians, directors, specialists, partners, and representatives of different institutions and communities who shared with us their knowledge, time, experience, professional stories, and personal dedication.
Gratitude to my colleagues – for the conversations, laughter, shared journeys, different perspectives, support, and the feeling that, for a few weeks, we became a small international library community. Thanks to them, I can now say “thank you” in several different languages – although Korean still continues to challenge me in that respect, even though it sounds so beautiful.
What I Take with Me
From Mortenson, I am leaving not only with piles of notes, photos, presentations, and ideas, but also with new professional confidence, a broader perspective on the role of libraries, and a deeper understanding of impact, community, and international cooperation.
I am also leaving with many personal and beautiful memories: the first dinner, the Bulgarian trace in Ohio, Thanksgiving in the rain, the podcast microphone, jazz in Chicago, the libraries that opened their doors to us, the smiles of our hosts, the shared food, the conversations on the train, the photos, the laughter, the exhaustion after long days, and that special feeling that you have been part of something large and important. But above all, I am leaving with the sense that libraries truly build belonging.
As a representative of ULSIT and as a person who believes in the power of libraries, I receive this experience with immense gratitude and responsibility. Every idea, every encounter, every good practice, and every moment of inspiration from this program will continue to live in my work in Bulgaria.
Because Mortenson does not end with the last day of the program. Mortenson continues – in the projects we will create; in the services we will improve; in the people we will support; in the libraries we will make more accessible, more meaningful, more human, and more connected.
And if I had to end with one sentence, it would be this: Thank you, Mortenson Center, for giving me not only knowledge, experience, inspiration, and new ideas, but also the feeling that libraries, when guided with vision, care, and heart, can truly change the world.