Search

The goal of this paper is to explain the basic concepts of project management and the main processes of project management. Also, the goal is to contribute to a better understanding of this business model in the library operations and its application in improving the success and efficiency in the realization of its basic mission. Approach/methodology/design. The paper uses the desk research method as the basic method, using the method of observation and analysis of the relevant online sites of Croatian libraries with the aim of analysing the existing typical and most common projects in libraries. The article includes explanations of the project life cycle and the corresponding stages of the project. The basic processes of project management are explained, starting from their planning and execution to supervision and closing. In addition to the listed contents, the topics related to the scope of the project and time management of the project, as well as the costs, resources and human potential of the project, are also covered to an appropriate extent. The results of this research indicate a significant number of different types of projects organized in Croatian libraries and present their role and high success in terms of start-up, execution and completion. The limitations of this study stem from the fact that the research on project management was conducted in public libraries of the Republic of Croatia. Practical implications. With its content and research results, the research can contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities and benefits of launching and implementing projects in libraries and related institutions and organizations. Social implications. Given the role of the library as an institution of special social interest, the efficient and successful project management in libraries has a corresponding broader social significance and potential impact in various fields, such as education, science, information, culture, economy and the use of leisure time. Originality and value of this paper is also demonstrated in the extensive presentation of theoretical knowledge about project management and the possibilities of their application in the organizational environment of library business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. Crowdsourcing has been used in libraries and archives all over the world for more than a decade, but it has not yet become popular in Croatia. The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent the Croatian professional community is familiar with this concept of work in heritage institutions, and also if there is any potential for implementing crowdsourcing in Croatian archives and libraries. Approach. The answers to these questions were obtained through a mixed research approach with predominantly quantitative characteristics on a random sample of 201 patrons and 23 employees of libraries and archives in the city of Zagreb. The research was conducted in situ with surveys for the patrons consisting of 17 questions and semi-structured interviews with the employees. In addition to examining the overall interest for participation in crowdsourcing projects and the employees' desire to supervise them, the respondents were questioned about their familiarity with the term "crowdsourcing", and their own thoughts and ideas on this topic. Findings. According to their answers, although patrons were not familiar with the term 'crowdsourcing' and its meaning before, they have shown interest for participating and gave positive feedback on crowdsourcing projects after reading a short explanation. They generally opted out for participating in purposeful games and projects of text correction and/or transcription. The results of this research have shown that, in addition to the willingness of patrons to participate as potential volunteers, there is also certain interest among employees as potential organizers of such projects. The employees have expressed concerns about the quality of that kind of amateur work, and emphasized the necessity of project supervision and work results monitoring as key elements for a successful project. In conclusion, a successful crowdsourcing project needs to be organized with the content and activities that would be appealing to potential volunteers and target the enthusiastic patrons who have shown interest in participating in various heritage institutions' activities and projects. Research limitations. This research was conducted only in the city of Zagreb, and although it included a number of city's archives and libraries, its results cannot be generally applied to other regions of Croatia. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further research in order to gain more insight into the potential and possibilities for implementing crowdsourcing in heritage institutions in all parts of Croatia. Originality. This paper provides better insight into the potential for implementation of crowdsourcing projects in Croatia based on findings of the research conducted among users and employees of archives and libraries in the city of Zagreb. There has not been research in this area prior to this paper, focusing on the interest of the respondents in organizing and participating in such activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The paper describes collection building in a medical library using the example of the Central Library of the Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Center (SMUHC) in Zagreb and its two branch libraries. Methods. The Central Library of the SMUHC at 29 Vinogradska Street in Zagreb is a special medical, i.e. a hospital library. The branch libraries are located at the other two locations of the SMUHC: at 19 Draškovićeva Street (at the Traumatology Department of the SMUHC), and at 197 Ilica Street (at the Oncology Department of the SMUHC). The paper describes the library collections and presents a brief overview of acquisition models. Findings. Due to the nature of biomedical information that becomes out of date rather quickly, the most important collections are periodicals, databases, and collections of the foreign and domestic books, which are regularly updated with the most recent editions. At the beginning of the 21st century, e-resources are becoming increasingly important in biomedicine. The Central Library develops its collections of the printed and e-resources combining the purchase with their own funds and using the access to e-resources procured for the scientific and academic institutions in the Republic of Croatia. Value. It may be concluded that by building its collections in the manner described in this paper, the Central Library of the SMUHC successfully fulfills the basic task of the large hospital library, which is to support the professional, scientific and research work of the employees of the Sestre milosrdnice UHC, as well as of the external users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/purpose. The aim of the paper is to draw the attention of the Croatian library community to design thinking as a concept, a set of methods and tools for solving problems and introducing innovations into business. The purpose is to inspire Croatian librarians to acquire design thinking skills and competencies in order to enhance their work. It is based on the methodology taken from design as a theoretical and practical discipline. Its key principles are user focus and a collaborative problem-solving strategy. Although design thinking has been developed since 1960s, integrating many tools and techniques in the fields of creativity, social sciences and computer sciences, it has become widely accepted in recent decades, primarily in the profit sector. It entered the library discourse only ten years ago. Despite the fact that there is no consensus on its acceptance in theory and practice, there is a growing number of profit and non-profit organizations, including libraries of all types and sizes that apply methodology and design thinking tools in their businesses. Approach/methodology. The desk research method will be used. A selection of relevant literature will provide an insight into the basic features of the design thinking concept and methods. The examples of its application in the profit sector and then in libraries, as an example of the non-profit sector, will be presented. The results. The insights presented in the paper will improve the awareness of the Croatian library community about design thinking as one of the popular trends in innovative and creative approaches to solving business problems in contemporary library management. Practical implications. The insights into the theoretical principles of design thinking and steps in its application, as well as several examples of good practice, could encourage Croatian librarians to introduce these new methods and tools into their libraries and library management. Originality/value. This paper introduces the topic of design thinking as a business concept and library management tool into theoretical discourse in Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. The aim of this paper is to present the goals and the process of establishing the Croatian DOI Office as part of the National and University Library in Zagreb, the development and characteristics of the DOI-HR System as well as the work and the accomplished achievements of the Office. Approach/methodology/design. The paper uses the descriptive method to explain the basic characteristics of the DOI identification system, its registration agency the Crossref and the Crossref registration office in the Republic of Croatia – the Croatian DOI Office. Along with the analysis of the statistical data recorded at the end of 2018 on the current Croatian scientific and professional journals, the paper presents the reasons for founding and the benefits of the membership obtained through the mediation of the Office. The paper mainly focuses on the work process and procedures of the Croatian DOI Office, the analyses and description of the DOI-HR System, its structure, purpose, functionalities, collaborations models, and metadata submission methods. Findings. The paper presents in detail the establishment and the activities of the new service of the National and University Library in Zagreb. It shows the necessity of the establishment of the Croatian DOI Office at the Library. The paper describes a new Crossref model operated by the national DOI office that provides signifi cant financial savings and broad range of other benefits for publishers who use the service through the Croatian DOI Office and DOI-HR System, such as Similarity Check services, technical support for assigning and registering DOIs, permanent storage of registered articles and all-rounders, maintenance of permanence of DOI, semi-automatized inclusion of articles in the Croatian National Bibliography and publication on the portal Digitalne zbirke Nacionalne i sveučilišne knjižnice u Zagrebu (Digital Collections of the National and University Library in Zagreb). Practical implication. The paper is intended for the wider library community and publishers who use or want to use the Croatian DOI Office registration service and other national and university libraries that consider establishing a national DOI office. Originality / value. The paper describes the establishing of the Croatian DOI Office, a new service of the National and University Library in Zagreb, the first national and one of the three university libraries in the world that use the new Crossref model of representing publishers (Sponsoring Organisation). Furthermore, the value of and the need for this unique type of service, that the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education has recognized too, are presented. The paper describes a unique system, the DOI-HR System, developed especially for the needs of the Office by the National and University Library in Zagreb. The System allows easier constructing and registering DOIs for the publishers, submitting metadata and objects and provides connectivity to other systems, and, at the same time, fulfills other tasks of the publishers and the national library, such as delivering and receiving of the legal deposit of online resources and their inclusion in the national bibliography and the digital library [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. The aim of the paper is to briefly present the founding and development of the Public library “Juraj Šižgorić’’ Šibenik from its establishment to 1980s, especially in the context of the development of the Croatian librarianship and libraries, but also of general social and political circumstances. Approach/methodology/design. The first part of the paper describes the circumstances in Šibenik during the 20th century, at the time when the city library was founded and developed. The second and the third parts of the paper present the development of the Public library “Juraj Šižgorić’’ Šibenik in the context of the development of Croatian librarianship, from 1920s to the Second World War, and the third part describes the period from the war to the 1980s. The data were collected from the daily newspapers, available in digitized form, thanks to the digitization activities of the Public Library “Juraj Šižgorić’’ Šibenik, as well as the University Library in Split, and the data from the scientific and professional literature. The librarians from the Public Library “Juraj Šižgorić’’ Šibenik have published several papers about their library on different topics: contributions by deserving directors, creation and development of collections, the role of the library in the contemporary social and cultural life of the city. Findings. This paper gives an insight into the historical development of the Public Library “Juraj Šižgorić’’ Šibenik and its connection with social and cultural life of the city. Throughout its long history, the library has often faced many problems such as lack of space and fi nancial support, but has always strived to keep up with the contemporary demands and needs of the community. Originality/value. The development of the library has been viewed both in the social context and through the general development of libraries in Croatia. The paper may serve as a basis for further research, but it may also be the inspiration for writing reviews about the history of other libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper brings, in chronological order, short biographies of the directors of the National and University Library in Zagreb and its predecessor libraries. The introduction offers an overview of the former investigations and accumulated knowledge on the status and role of the previous managers of this central Croatian library, followed by short descriptions of their life and work in the Library. The aim of this paper is to contribute to its 400th anniversary by supplementing the more extensive published works on its collected book heritage, events, premises and services, from which we rarely learn much about the persons who gave the greatest contribution to its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the history and the present state of the Jesuits Library in Dubrovnik, as well as to give some considerations about its further development. The outstanding historical importance of the Library is founded on its firm connections with the College of the Company of Jesus, once the most important educational and pedagogical institution of the Dubrovnik Republic. The paper deals with the complex circumstances related to the College foundation and the development since the arrival of the Jesuits in Dubrovnik in the 16th century. After the abolishment of the Jesuits order and the College in 1773, the library holdings were relocated to several places. Thus, we know that today a part of the collections is situated in the Science library and the Franciscan monastery Mala bra}a in Dubrovnik. The destiny of the rest of the rich library collections hasn't been much explored so far and therby is rather unknown. However, the analyses of the print catalogues in the Library of the Jesuit Residence in Dubrovnik (1993), has shown that a considerable number of the library books had originated from the former library of the Jesuit College. The hypothesis that the present library of the Residence of the Company of Jesus in Dubrovnik is the real and legitimate "heiress" of the library of the Jesuit College is founded on this fact, as well as on the historical implications pointed out in this work. Further researches, which could possibly prove this hypothesis, should have strong impact on the future actions directed to the preservation and maintenance of the valuable national cultural heritage of this library, as stated in the paper conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes current practice of the classification of history in the National and University Library, Zagreb according to the Universal Decimal Classification. The author explains the main concepts in the field of history and stresses the important rôle of common auxiliaries in indexing of this type of content. Various issues and ambiguities in content analysis and classification are described and solutions proposed. The author pays particular attention to class 930 Science of history and to the issues of: determination of the historical content, interdisciplinarity of historical content, and objectivity and consistency in indexing. The paper provides an insight into advantages and disadvantages of historical geographical subdivision for Croatia and suggests subdivision of the history of Croatia by period, in order to enable more specific indexing. The author concludes by suggesting that proposed solutions should be adopted as a standard approach by Croatian libraries in order to enhance information discovery and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous international organizations are publishing documents which are not only emphasizing new approaches to education, but also putting education into the centre of political action, recognizing it as the basis for the future society. Being a full member of the Europe of Knowledge implies the adoption of lifelong learning as a core social and political principle. Libraries can make a unique contribution in the field of developing the competencies that are a prerequisite of lifelong learning by making their users information literate, i.e. by educating them about information retrieval, access, evaluation and use of information sources, thus preparing them for the independent aquisition of knowledge. This paper presents documents from the European Union that direct the patterns of education towards a "knowledge society", as well as documents that explicitly emphasize the need for new competencies and the role of libraries in achieving the Europe of Knowledge. The concept of information literacy is identified as a set of competencies that are necessary for the use of all benefits yielded by the information society. The last part of the paper analyzes the state of information literacy in Croatia in the form of strategic documents or user education services. The Virtual Classroom of the National and University Library is presented as a user education programme based on elements of information literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of 2004 Rijeka City Library started a county mobile library service in the region of Gorski kotar and Matulji municipality. Intention of this paper is to present the project of implementing a county mobile library service through several aspects: analysis of a public library network covering Primorsko-goranska County before the county mobile Library started, initiating the project Mobile library service in Primorsko-goranska County, planning and organizing the collections, services and programmes, purchasing the vehicle and equipment, starting the mobile library service, promoting the project, evaluating the project, and the plans for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses several groups of problems identified in classification of art history according to Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). As the first group of issues the author mentions the existence of more than one UDC number for the same concept, and finds that, sometimes, the distinction made in UDC between different aspects of the same concepts is not necessary. In the second group of issues the author lists some deficiences of the UDC scheme as present in the Croatian edition from 2005 (based on the UDC MRF from 1998) and points out the problems of the out-of-date classification of periods of mediaeval art in this edition and confusing terminology and hierarchy of modern and contemporary art. The author describes how the above listed problems are solved in the classification practice of the National and University Library in Zagreb (Croatia). The author clarifies which of the above mentioned issues can be managed through the library's classification guidelines and which can only be alleviated using a revised UDC schedule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to define the term alternative library and to identify the structure and activities of alternative libraries based on the Zagreb sample. Alternative libraries are civil sector's libraries. These libraries collect and offer the use of their collections to the general public. Their collections cover a variety of topics and subjects from the field of human rights protection, such as rights of women, homosexuals, right to live in peace and free information-access rights. The results of the research conducted at the end of September and the beginning of October 2005 are presented in this article. Using structured interview method, the research was carried out in five Zagreb alternative libraries. The libraries include: Reading-room and Library of The Centre for Women's Studies; the Library of Ženska Infoteka; Lezbib -- lesbian library of Lesbian Group Kontra; Media Archive [mama] of Multimedia Institute [mi2]; and Peace Library of The Centre for Peace Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the emergence of library services for children in countries with a developed public library system, Croatian public libraries started developing special sections and services for children. This paper provides a review of the development of children's library services in Croatia from 1950's to 2005, describing the situation in children's libraries based on the data presented in 2004 by the Commission for Children's Libraries of the Croatian Library Association. The latter indicated a significant difference in the development of children's libraries in Croatia, both in terms of specific activities and in terms of the context in which they operate. This suggests a need for setting the basic standards which would define in more detail the conditions for performing activities focused more on the needs and rights of the users of children's libraries. The development of a clear operating strategy for children's services, as part of the general public libraries strategy, is yet another precondition for the development and successful operation in the field of children's library services in Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In efforts to join the European Union, Republic of Croatia has issued an official document entitled Communication strategy for informing Croatian public on Croatia's efforts to join European integrations. Spreading information about European Community is being carried out by setting 85 Euro Info-Points in all counties and bigger cities. Besides the Euro Info-shelf, an Internet Kiosk is a constituent part of these Euro Info-Points. The technology of the Internet Kiosk is described on the examples of several libraries in the world, emphasizing its advantages regarding the improvement of existing and introduction of new services for library users. Exemplified by Zadar University Library, the importance of Euro Info-Points in retrieving and distributing information about European integrations is being considered in this paper, particularly after these issues entered the educational programmes of certain University departments. In addition, the Internet Kiosk has also introduced new services for the users of University library -- access to Internet and the use of electronic mail. The fact that more than half of the Euro Info-Points have been set in libraries is also emphasized, confirming their unavoidable role in creating the conditions for achieving intellectual freedom and preserving fundamental democratic values and civil rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to present the first development period of the bibliographic activities in the National and University Library in Zagreb and point particularly to some so far unknown facts connected with this development. Some organisational and other questions during the presidency of the first Library director Ivan Kostren6id are first discussed, followed by a review of activities of Kostrencic's successor Velimir Dezelic. It was established that during the whole period between 1875 and 1918 the Library professionals took into account the necessity of elaboration and publication of the Croatian national bibliography but that the necessary financial and personnel prerequisites for this activity were not extant in the Library at that time. Therefore the Library had to restrict its activities to priority tasks, such as library catalogues for users. Some details about an unsuccessful trial of the production of a Croatian bibliography at the end of the 19th century are presented as well as the creation of the first cataloguing rules in 1913 and plans of V. Dezelic for further development of bibliographic activities in the Library after the end of the First World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]