Ministry of Culture
Republic of Croatia
NAPLE Conference
Athens, 13 May 2014
Public library service provision in
the Republic of Croatia
O Provision of libriary services to the community is of
particular social interest to the Republic of Croatia.
Despite of difficulties in funding, significant budget cuts,
lack of a unified national system, public libraries have
always sucessfully fulfilled their cultural, information,
educational and social role in the Croatian society.
O Unprecedented technological, organizational and cultural
changes and the need to support the evolving needs of
users, staff and collections in an adverse economic
environment have spurred the libraries and the competent
state authorities to develop and implement a National
Library Strategy, allowing amendment of current legal
framework, library policies and infrastructure.
Croatian Library Council
The Croatian Library Council is an expert and advisory
body of the Ministry of Culture entrusted, among else,
with the task to re-envisage library policies, re-purpose
the provision of library services and implement
transformative changes in library networks:
O Analysis of the current status of librarianship in the
Republic of Croatia; development and implementation
of new core and supporting dierections
O Promoting the adoption of and proposing amendments
to current legislation governing library policies and
services
O Proposing and implementing measures for improving
the Croatian library system
O Promoting lifelong training of librarians
Act on Libraries
O Adopted in 1997
O Amendments to the Act in 2000 and 2009
O A large number of provisions of the Act are
not aligned with laws and bylaws directly
related to the provision of library services
O Needs to be modernised, upgraded and
amended
Croatian Library Council
2013 – 2017 Action Plan
O Appointment of Task Forces in charge of implementing key
strategi objectives:
1. National Library Strategy2013 – 2020
2. Amendment of legal framwork (Act on Libraries, bylaws,
rules, codes)
3. Drafting the Ordinance on professional positions and career
advancement in the library profession
4. Legal deposit
O Participation in the development of the Croatian Heritage
Digitization Strategy
O Development of the National Written Heritage Protection
Programme
O Development of the National Monastery Library Reconstruction
Programme
Croatian National Library
Strategy 2013 -2020
Strategic objectives:
O Functional networking of all kinds of libraries
into a unique Croatian system which is to
ensure complete coverage of population by
library services (currently 70 %)
O E- content management
O Library as the third space –central cultural and
information centre of the community
Croatian National Library Strategy
2013 -2020
O Key measures:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduce innovative library services
Build a creative, sustainable and efficient
organization that supports the implemenation of
a single national library information system
Develop a nation-wide IT infrastructure,
providing full compatibility of library services
Define and develop a competence framework that
fosters career development and professional
growth of library staff, resulting in continuous
improvement in the quality of service provision
Thank you for your attention!
Directorate for Literature, Publishing and
Libraries
Department for Libraries
Dubravka Đurić Nemec, director
E-mail: dubravka.djuric-nemec@min-kulture.hr
Phone: 00385 1 4866 431