Croatian public libraries in time of crisis

Abstract

Croatian public libraries faced complex processes in society at the turn of the 20th into the 21st century – a time of transition and transformation in Croatia. During this period, Croatia shifted towards democracy and modernization. Its constitution (now seen as a geopolitical and cultural entity), extraordinary conditions of war disaster in the Homeland War 1991–1995, and conditions of the post-war period all presented unique challenges for public libraries in Croatia. In addition, Croatian libraries have also been influenced by characteristics of the information society that occurs trans-nationally and trans-societally (among all globalization processes and permeating all aspects of life with information and communication technology). Croatian libraries had to transform their traditional role of lending books and acting as cultural heritage institutions to follow international modern library trends in the information age as multifunctional information, educational, cultural and communication centres of their local communities. The aim of this article is to give a historical review of public libraries’ accommodation to these turbulent changes in Croatian society, as well as in the world in the last few decades.

Keywords

Information age public libraries – Croatia transition and transformation of society turn of the 20th into the 21st century war and post-war period

Introduction

Croatian public libraries can be distinguished from libraries in many other countries by their tradition and history. Katalenac (2003: 14) argues that, due to significantly different historical circumstances, the driver for constituting Croatian public libraries was not primarily a social one connected with industrialization and democratization from the second half of the 19th century, as in the West, but a national one. Namely, Croatian public library tradition dates back to the 1830s when so called Illyrian reading rooms were founded within the framework of the Croatian National Revival. In opposition to Austro-Hungarian rule, their primary purpose was to nurture the Croatian language and culture, as well as national awakening and identity.

Stipanov (2015: 195–206) divides the foundation and development of public libraries in Croatia into three phases or waves. After the first wave with the founding of Illyrian reading rooms in the late 1830s and 1840s, the second phase or wave was in the period 1870s–1900 with the founding of Croatian reading rooms as a prominent library function. The third wave in the establishment and development of public libraries in Croatia happened at the beginning of the 20th century. The First World War interrupted and stopped this process. After the war, Croatia found itself in the newly created state, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which was based on rigid centralism and unionism from its beginning with restriction of individual and national rights. According to Stipanov (2015: 207–208), that slowed down the establishment of public libraries in Croatia.

Mesić (1990: 87–100) states that public libraries in the true sense of the word – that is as, publicly funded institutions – appeared and spread in Croatia in the 20th century. It was particularly the case after the Second World War when Croatia became one of six republics of the new socialist and federal state of Yugoslavia under the rule of the Communist Party. Stipanov (2015: 223–315) divides this period into three phases. In the first phase, 1945–1960, public libraries were established in great numbers, even in the smallest settlements, as an expression of post-war enthusiasm on one hand, as well as the broad enlightenment movement in the service of industrialization, and the ideological and political authentication of the new state, on the other hand. It was marked by a campaign: unplanned activities in founding public libraries, usually based on voluntary work, without a systematic plan and financial conditions for the work of public libraries.

In the second phase, 1960–1990, development of public libraries in Croatia was marked by professional standardization and following international trends in library development, especially after Croatia adopted the first Library and Librarianship Act in 1960. According to Stipanov (2015: 246), 1960 was a decisive year in Croatian librarianship, because the legal and professional framework for all types of libraries was set, and funding was strictly defined and regulated, as was their work, activities, role and tasks in society. The tasks of newly established central regional libraries were also determined in order to improve the library networking.

Stipanov (2015: 256–257) also points out that the status of public libraries in Croatia began to improve considerably after 1968, when special funds for culture were established in local government units. Attention was paid to the availability of a network of public libraries, professional staff, space and equipment. Despite the fact that the libraries in that period were more and more organized, spatially and technically equipped, and were increasing in trained staff and good experts, they were not sufficiently functional in networking on a national level that could influence their effectiveness (Stipanov, 2015: 264). The National and University Library in Zagreb has implemented computers and automated its work since 1980, as well as spreading education on the implementation of new information and communication technology in public libraries.

Turbulent changes in Croatian society at the turn of the 20th into the 21st century

The turn of the 1980s into 1990s was marked by turbulent processes all over Europe. Cvjetičanin (1990: 20–24) states that it was during this period that the integration processes in Europe and the world were at a turning point. The ideas of socialism became devalued in all the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, where the communist parties were in power, with an overall structural crisis coupled with the fall of the party socialism model. The crisis also affected the concept of prosperity in Western European states where democracy has traditionally been in power. According to Županov (1990: 45–63), the crisis in Yugoslavia was perceived as the fall of a self-managing socialist model and the collapse of a common state of six republics (including Croatia) in 1990. The former socialist states all over Europe became so-called transitional societies.

According to Cifrić (1998: 48–52), the term transition in scientific and professional literature means accepting reforms as a mechanism of social change that occurs after the historical collapse of a society based on real socialism. Transition changes include transformation of the political structure (democracy), economic structure (ownership), social structure (social layers) and normative structure (values). The goal of these changes has been the establishment of a market economy, multi-party system and rule of law, i.e. the creation of a democratic society. The changes were not only about transition from an authoritarian regime to a liberal-democratic one, but also about transformation of a pre-modern society into a modern one.

According to some authors (Puljiz, 2001: 157–183; Štulhofer 1998a: 167, 1998b: 161–172, 2001: 219–252; Šundalić, 2001: 65–81), the phenomena accompanying the transition and transformation of Croatian society over the nearly last 30 years have been social insecurity and the growth of the poor, a large number of unemployed and non-salaried employees, unemployed young people between 25 and 34 years, the number of retirees compared to employed, social deprivation, social exclusion, the societal polarization of society, the growing amorality of society in economic transformation (an increase in organized crime, abuse of official position, etc.), moral vacuum or anomie and a low level of socio-cultural capital.

Unlike western countries where public libraries traditionally have an information and educational role, libraries in Croatia have been traditionally considered as cultural institutions. Therefore, they have also been influenced by the processes of cultural transition and the creation of a specific cultural policy transition. According to Lukić (2008: 11–27) there are problems and questions about subsidizing in culture, the transition from the model of democratization of culture to the model of cultural democracy, the importance of human resources, etc. The need for education in the field of cultural management, cultural policies and cultural studies has been emphasized, as well as advocating for nonlinearity of the concept of culture, which takes into account the principles of cultural democracy and the orientation of cultural policies towards real consumers of cultural content.

Adjustments of Croatian public libraries to societal changes

Major changes in the socio-political and economic life of Croatia in the 1990s have also influenced the work of public libraries and their collections. They have been starting to purchase more books on topics such as religion and Croatian national history, especially books of authors proscribed in the ideology of the former socialist regime. These were, for example, books of Croatian dissidents such as historian Franjo Tuđman, the first Croatian president, economist Marko Veselica, the poet Vlado Gotovac, writers Zlatko Tomičić and political emigrant Vinko Nikolić, a student leader in the Croatian national movement in 1971, Dražen Budiša, as well as books of the Catholic Church publisher ‘Kršćanska sadašnjost’. At the same time, Marxist and socialist ideological literature was moved to shelves in the library storage facilities.

An important factor which affected all spheres of life, including the performance of public libraries in the first half of the 1990s, was marked by adjustment to extraordinary conditions of war disaster, the Homeland War 1991–1995 in Croatia, with extensive human casualties and material suffering. According to the Croatian Encyclopaedia ( Domovinski rat, Hrvatska enciklopedija, 2017) it was a defensive war for the independence and integrity of the Croatian state against the aggression of the associated Greater Military forces – extremists in Croatia, the Yugoslav People’s Army, and Serbia and Montenegro. Some libraries in Croatia experienced great starvation and destruction; as the war brought stagnation to the parts that had not been directly affected by military operations (Aparac-Gazivoda and Katalenac, 1993; Hrvatske knjižnice na meti/Croatian libraries on target, 1992). The libraries provided customer services despite their operating under conditions of a constant threat of war. Šapro-Ficović (2012) points out that libraries in the cities under siege were the only public, cultural institutions constantly working and serving users. Libraries existed and acted not only as information institutions but as a prop to people in their desire for a normal life, to support their hard times.

As the Croatian public libraries were marked by adjustment to extraordinary conditions of war disaster in the first half of the 1990s, so the second half of the last decade of the 20th century was marked by redefining the position and role of the Croatian public libraries in society due to a number of changes in the immediate and wider environment. According to Stipanov (1998: 197) the most important changes were: completion of the Homeland War; the problems of transition; a general decline in living standards and national income; restoring and rearranging the library and its space in cities and small towns of Croatia, especially those that were destroyed and damaged in the war; a new administrative-territorial organization of Croatia; the introduction of new technologies and media in public libraries (Internet, CD-ROMs); and the new Act on Libraries (1997). Since the 1990s, the development of public libraries in Croatia was significantly influenced by the new territorial-administrative division of Croatia into 20 counties, plus the City of Zagreb, and about 500 administrative local units and self-government. Despite the Library Act from 1997 prescribing that every local community with over 5000 inhabitants has to establish a public library, implementation has been difficult because of the disproportion of financial and organizational resources in some local communities.

Based on this new territorial-administrative division of Croatia, a new network of public library county centres was established in 1995. The Croatian public library network consists today of 20 central county libraries and the Zagreb City Library system, the largest library in the country. Nine public libraries serve ethnic minorities. The Library Act was adopted in 1997 to improve librarianship in Croatia, as well as its approach to world trends. The goals were: availability of library materials to each inhabitant; the autonomy of the public libraries from other institutions (open universities, cultural centres, etc.); networking of libraries and establishment of the Croatian library system to make the effects of public libraries greater; increasing library funds (1.5–3 books per capita, depending on city or municipality size, on average 2 books); increasing population coverage in membership of libraries.

Extraordinary change has been related to computerization. Croatian public libraries started to use computers in library processing in the late 1980s. These first steps created preconditions for direct, fast and high-quality access to information, library funds of various types and databases. The increasing use of the most advanced communications and information technology has greatly affected future operations and organization of the work of Croatian public libraries.

According to some works (Kraš, 1998; Šegota-Novak and Turčin, 1997) topics that dominated Croatian public library discourse in the period 1995–2000 were: education of librarians to use new technologies (Internet, CD-ROMs); future of the library profession; users in the 21st century; Croatian public libraries in the context of international library practices; new management tools in the public libraries of the new millennium.

In the first decade of the 21st century (2001–2010) a series of new themes entered the discourse of Croatian librarianship, influenced by social, cultural and political development on national and international levels. The key themes were: free access to information; change management in libraries; libraries as active factors in the Croatian accession to the European Union (EU); cultural tourism and the local library as an informative cultural centre and a promoter of local distinctiveness, cultural heritage and modernity.

That period was marked by the intense pre-activities for Croatian accession to the EU (which took place on 1 July 2013) and the public libraries’ active information role in these activities. One of the first projects in Croatian public libraries financed by the EU was realized in the Fran Galović Public Library in Koprivnica in 2006. It was the service for blind and visually impaired persons in cooperation with the County Association of Blind Persons. According to Sabolović-Krajina (2007), the main activities in the project were procurement of special reading material and technical equipment for the print disabled, training of staff in delivering the new service, organization and delivery of educational and animation programmes for target groups, and promotion of the service. The aim of the project was to ensure a library service that would provide blind and visually impaired persons with better access to sources of knowledge and information in their local environment for the purposes of having better education and information, completing their formal education, obtaining professional qualifications, finding employment and contributing to the life of the community and society, in general, in a more valuable way.

The Ivan Goran Kovačić City Library of Karlovac was included in two EU projects (Gradska knjižnica ‘Ivan Goran Kovačić’ Karlovac: EU projekti). Project BeRi (Besede in rieči) was realized in cooperation with the one Slovenian library in the border area. Organized activities were courses for learning Slovenian and Croatian languages, exchange of education and cultural programmes, encouraging cross-border exchange of books between the two libraries involved in the project. Its second project, named Mobill, was based on purchasing two mobile library vehicles for the purpose of lifelong learning in rural communities of Karlovac County in Croatia and Una Sana Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The City library of Vinkovci was the holder of the project ‘Knjižnice za novo doba/Libraries for a new age’ in the framework of the Cross-Border Programme Croatia–Serbia in which eight public libraries from Croatia and Serbia participated in 2012–2013 (Gradska knjižnica Vinkovci: Knjižnice za novo doba). Activities were based on the increasing of libraries’ and librarians’ capacities, education of marginalized social groups and development of intercultural network of libraries.

The Ivan Vidali City Library of Korčula participated in the project ‘Library. I love it!’ in partnership with libraries from Austria, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and Turkey in 2014 (Gradska knjižnica ‘Ivan Vidali’ Korčula: Library. I love it!). It was realized in the framework of the EU Grundtvig programme for lifelong learning of adults. Since 2017 this library has been participating in the project ‘Migrate to library’ together with libraries from Poland, Spain and Lithuania. Its aim is to support migrants – refugees, immigrants, repatriates. Activities are focused on learning how to effectively involve them in the community and how to work with adults and children.

The accession of Croatia into the EU has benefitted public libraries in providing opportunities to apply for alternative financial sources for library infrastructure and staff professional development, in addition to funding ensured by the local authorities and the Ministry of Culture. Librarians also have more opportunities for international cooperation and mobility – for example study visits to foreign libraries to increase their professional skills and competencies in work with library users to support community empowerment through engagement with local libraries.

As Horvat has stated (2008: 9–10), the transformations experienced by the umbrella international library organization, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions – IFLA, also affected Croatian librarianship. As a traditional professional association, IFLA has become an organization that wants to take social responsibility into the wider world community. In line with that, Croatian public libraries tried to undertake an active social role in their local communities. According to the proceedings of the symposium on socially inclusive library services (Sabolović-Krajina, 2018) there are examples of programmes and projects relating to the active social role of libraries in their local communities. For example, the City Library of Zagreb offers services to people experiencing homelessness and library services for refugees. This library also offers programmes for the deaf. The Fran Galović Public Library in Koprivnica, besides the services for the blind and visually impaired, provides programmes that support Roma people, the most unprivileged group of citizens in the local community. The mobile library of Petar Preradović Public Library in Bjelovar provides services to prisoners. Rijeka City Library has launched a service, ‘Library at your doorstep!’, that provides book delivery to seniors and disabled citizens; who, due to their limited or non-existent mobility, cannot visit the library themselves.

The most significant changes that public libraries have experienced in the global information society, such as free access to information and the attitude towards customers, actual and potential, are also reflected in the Croatian public libraries. Katalenac (2003: 15) notes that public libraries have adopted a proactive, engaged treatment of all categories of users, which is conceptually based on the respect of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

In the second half of the first decade of the 21st century (2006–2010) new themes appeared in Croatian public librarianship: digitization of Croatian cultural heritage; library concepts and architecture; digital and virtual collections, electronic books and electronic journals, databases, a repository; public library – a place of research and lifelong learning; teens in the library; reading and literacy as basic competences in modern society; the role of library in the community.

Local digital initiatives (projects) involving public libraries in Croatia were undertaken in the framework of the national project ‘Croatian Cultural Heritage’ that has been led by the Ministry of Culture since 2006. For example, the Marko Marulić City Library Split (Gradska knjižnica “Marko Marulić” Split: Zavičajna zbirka Spalatina) has been digitizing books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, notes, postcards, photographs and soundtracks from its local history collection and storing them in a repository called Spalatina.

Zagreb City libraries (Knjižnice grada Zagreba: Digitalizirana zagrebačka baština), as the largest public library system in Croatia, have the most extensive repository base of digitized local cultural heritage: graphic material, cartographic material, books, books for children and young people, notes, manuscripts, serial publications, small print, sound records. Zagreb City Libraries have been participating in the project ‘Significant and Meritorious Croatians’ together with the Library of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the National and University Library in Zagreb. It is a very important example of a thematic portal, because of the cooperation of various institutions in gathering and aligning metadata, rationalizing development costs, providing the foundation for joining other Croatian libraries, archives and museums, and creating new services for users.

From the beginning of the 2010s topics on the library as a place of inclusion and intercultural understanding; the library as a communication and multicultural community centre; the library as a third space, etc. have entered the discourse of the Croatian public library system.

Major obstacles to the development of Croatian librarianship

According to Sabolović-Krajina and her analyses and findings in her doctoral thesis ‘Public library as a local community centre in contemporary society’ (2016: 96) major obstacles to the development of Croatian librarianship in the last few decades, which remain identical to today despite adjustments to the changes in society and the application of information and communication technology in their work, have been as follows: an insufficient number of qualified staff; insufficient space; lack of cooperation; lack of coordination; unevenness and non-functional library network systems; uneven development and availability of information technology; lack of a strategic plan for automation, and incoherence of national library information infrastructure development. Until now there has been no common information library system in Croatia, but there are currently six library programmes in public libraries (BiblosAM, CROLIST, Medved, Metelwin, OSA ISIS, ZaKi) and in a smaller number of libraries a library programme still does not exist.

Membership in the library encompasses 12% of the population, as it did in 1995, while the world standard is 20% of the total population. Sabolović-Krajina (2016: 99) has concluded that the potential contribution of public libraries to the development of society is not fully recognized in Croatian society. In the Croatian government strategic document, the prevailing traditional role of public libraries is primarily to contribute to the development of cultural and national identity, and to be places for lending books and encouraging reading. This prevailing traditional concept aligns neither with international library and policy documents from the late 1990s onwards, nor with the contemporary practice of Croatian public libraries that are intended to be multifunctional public institutions that: support the development of democracy and civil society in their local communities; are must-see places in the organization and implementation of lifelong learning programmes; are institutions that contribute to social inclusion, social integration, and social cohesion and the economic prosperity of their communities. On the other hand, citing traditional public libraries’ functions such as lending books and encouraging reading in national strategic documents provides a basis for relatively stable financial government subsidies and support for the purchase of media for library collections. This has been particularly important for the survival of Croatian libraries during the Homeland War as well as during the recession from 2008 onwards, when many local communities, which are the founders of libraries, saw public funding reduced. Public libraries have not been abolished in comparison with many other countries. Namely, the survival of public libraries has been threatened even in economically developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Numerous articles report the closing of hundreds of libraries due to cutting public costs, and many librarians were replaced by volunteers (Jaeger et al., 2017; Swaffield, 2017; Wainwright et al., 2016).

Croatian public libraries apply to the annual tender of the Ministry of Culture for financial support in the procurement of library reading materials, IT equipment, international cooperation, programmes for encouraging reading, organizing professional conferences, etc. Insight into the budget of the Ministry of Culture for the public library sector in Croatia (Ministarstvo kulture Republike Hrvatske: Financiranje – Arhiva) does not show significant deviations in the last 10 years (2006–2016), except in reduction in financing central county development services and central libraries of national minorities in last few years. There was a significant increase in the financing purchase of library reading materials in 2017. The Ministry of Culture allocates finances for compensation to authors for public lending of their works in 20 county public libraries. Stable financial support of the Ministry of Culture is very important for user statistics, the size of collections and the development of library services, especially when the main problem is in local funding of the library service. It means that cities and municipalities, as the founders of public libraries, often do not follow libraries’ needs. There is also the problem of the lack of strategy in financing the purchase of new mobile library vehicles that demands cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and local authorities.

Comparison with some other countries

Sabolović-Krajina (2016: 101–107) has made a comparison between the position of public libraries in strategic and political documents in Croatia and some other countries (UK, Denmark, Finland). She has pointed out that, unlike Croatian society which has suffered the burden of the post-war period, transition and transformation processes towards democracy, the UK and the Nordic societies are highly developed democratic and information societies. In Croatian society, the potential contribution of public libraries to the development of society is not fully recognized. On the contrary, both the UK and the Nordic countries have clearly defined expectations, functions and missions of public libraries. In the UK, the position of public libraries in the national strategic objectives is primarily linked to the prosperity of a neoliberal consumerist society. Their role is also to combat the consequences of social polarization, unemployment, migration, social tensions and inequities in society. In the Nordic countries, the public libraries’ role is primarily to mediate in linking citizenship with the new information and communication technologies and new ways of access to information needed in everyday life. In Croatia, public libraries are primarily expected to contribute to the development of cultural and national identity.

The heritage of Croatian public libraries can also be recognized in Christine L Borgman’s comparison of international and inter-cultural differences in information infrastructure. She noticed (2002: 202) that one of the features of libraries in Central and Eastern Europe is the focus on preserving cultural heritage, rather than access to information. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have not developed in their history a society where information is of high value. According to Borgman (2002: 205) the task of the countries in this area is to educate the people about the value of information in decision making in all spheres of life and libraries have a great role and task in this segment alone.

Statistical data on Croatian public libraries

The comparison of statistical data on the number of public libraries between 1989 and 2013, i.e. before and after 1991, when Croatia as a geopolitical and cultural entity was constituted, shows that there were 269 public libraries in 2013 – 17 less than in 1989 (Table 1). The reason for the smaller number of libraries was mainly due to the closure of those in small municipalities that did not meet the requirements of new standards for public libraries.

Table 1.

Numbers of public libraries and book copies in Croatian libraries 1989–2013.

Year	Public libraries	Book copies
1989 ^a	286	4,723,000
2004 ^b	256	6,824,000
2007 ^b	257	7,764,000
2010 ^b	249	8,288,000
2013 ^b	269	9,359,000

^a The Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Croatia (Statistički godišnjak Republike Hrvatske, 1990: 319).

^b The Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics (Hrvatska u brojkama – Croatia in figures, 2017: 34).

According to the Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics ( Hrvatska u brojkama – Croatia in figures, 2017: 34) there were altogether 1781 libraries in Croatia in 2013, including the National and University Library, faculty, academic, special, public and school libraries.

Statistical analysis of the current state of library services undertaken by the Commission for Mobile Libraries of the Croatian Library Association ( Pokretne knjižnice RH – stanje 2017 , 2017) indicates that Croatia has not yet regained the state of library services before the break-up from Yugoslavia. Namely, in 1986 there were 17 mobile library vehicles and around 30,000 library members. In 2017 there were 13 vehicles organized in nine counties and 21,000 mobile library members. However, the situation has improved compared to the 1990s when the number of vehicles in Croatia fell to only seven and the number of users was around 10,000.

As Stričević and Pehar state (2015: 680), Croatia, with a population of nearly 4,300,000 (2011 population census), has a relatively large number of libraries for its size, despite the fact that particular libraries vary greatly one from another, not only in size, content, space and number of patrons, but also in the degree to which their collections and services have been expanded. This heterogeneity indicates that the Croatian library system as a whole requires further cultivation.

Table 2 presents the data collected in the statistics of the National and University Library in Zagreb (Hrvatski zavod za knjižničarstvo, Centar za razvoj knjižnica i knjižničarstva: Članstvo, posjete, posudbe i sudjelovanje u aktivnostima narodnih knjižnica u RH u 2016. godini, 2017). There were 198 public libraries opened to work with users in 2016. The total number of members in 2016 was 531,514, which represents an increase compared to the previous year (2015) of 514,463 members, i.e. slightly more than 3%. The total number of physical visits was 7,826,376 which also represents an increase in comparison to the previous year by 226,657 visits, i.e. an increase of approximately 3%.

Table 2.

Numbers of public libraries, library members, physical visits to the libraries, and adults participating in library activities 2015 and 2016.

Year	Public libraries	Members	Physical visits	Loans	Adults in library activities
2015	198	514,463	7,598,719	10,817,958	338,823
2016	198	531,514	7,825,376	10,157,007	485,958

The number of loans in 2016 was 10,157,007 – a decrease of 660,951 units compared to the previous year indicating about 6% less borrowing. However, the total number of adults participating in library activities in 2016 was 485,958 – higher by 147,135, or about 30% more adults participating in the activities conducted in public libraries in comparison with the previous year.

Services provided by public libraries to Croats, as well as the social impact of public libraries on local communities have been evaluated by using qualitative and quantitative methods (Dragija Ivanović, 2012: 83–100; Gabriel and Bišćan, 2017). Despite numerous local surveys, there is a lack of a systematic approach to evaluation of library work as a part of management and the decision-making process. There is also a lack of national surveys on the social impacts of public libraries in Croatia.

Conclusion

A historical review of Croatian public libraries’ accommodation to the complex changes in society in last few decades, at the turn of the 20th into the 21st century, analysed the context they have been operating in, i.e. specific transitional and transformational social processes from Croatian independence in 1990, the Homeland War and the post-war period until today. Free access to information, as well as the pro-active attitude towards customers as the most significant changes that public libraries have experienced in the global information society, is also reflected in Croatian public libraries. The range of library services has expanded from lending books and reference and information services to those related to the use of modern information and communication technologies and new media, as well as in taking proactive roles in local community development. A historical review also suggests that the effectiveness of public libraries in contemporary Croatian society could be much stronger if policy makers at all levels (local, regional, national) recognized their full contribution to the development of Croatian society.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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