ID card of the Association

            The Association of Librarians of Bilogora, Podravina and Kalnik Region, the professional and social association of library employees, is the integral part of  The Croatian Library Association (CLA). It was founded on March 15, 1977, as the Association of Librarians of  Regional Association of Municipalities of Bjelovar, including the areas of Bjelovar, Čazma, Daruvar, Đurđevac, Garešnica, Grubišno Polje, Koprivnica, Križevci, Pakrac and Virovitica. At its beginning, the Association had 30 members, and its first president was Ana Utopljenikov from Virovitica.

 The oldest kept photograph from the Association's archive:

The 1st assembly, held in 1981

With the administative-territorial restructuring, by which regional associations of municipalities were repealed, thus forming counties (1992), the Association acquired today's name in 1966 and included the area of Bjelovarsko-bilogorska County, Koprivničko-križevačka County and a part of  Virovitičko-podravska County. The New Article of Agreement was passed on January 12, 1998 and the Association was listed in the Register of Associations of the Republic of Croatia on August 26, 1998. According to the address-book from 2007, the Association has 66 public, school and special libraries and 136 full and honorary members today, and its president in his second mandate is Ilija Pejić from Bjelovar.

 Goals and activities

 Goals of the Association are to gather library employees from all types of libraries and to advance the library profession. Since its very beginning the Association has pleaded for more agreeable material and social position of books and library profession, encouraging the founding and cooperation of different types of libraries and library associations, ensuring professional and material conditions for successful performance of  county central services, centralized cataloguing of library materials, dealing with the problems of the bookmobile library service, for permanent education of librarians, acquisition of  native region materials etc. In the course of its activity, the Association has been taking active part in all important library profession issues: legislation and sub-legislation as well as standardization, computerization and publishing.

            The Association is financed from the income of individual memberships and libraries and other sponsorships and supports. It takes the active part in competitions of the Ministry of Culture, non-govermental organizations and other sponsors of culture (municipalities, towns, counties) in order to improve its material position and realize planned projects, most of all publishing activity and organization of conferences.

            Members of the Association with their works and researches take active part in conferences, seminars and workshops organized by the CLA, and in the activities of most of its sections, commissions and assemblies, and the president takes part in the work of its head board. Our Association hosted and co-organized the 33rd General Assembly of the Croatian Library Association in Daruvar in 2002, thus financially and organizationally helping it. Let us remind that this conference with its Appeal for Daruvar Library in one part contributed to the realization of the aspirations of the Public Library and Reading-room of Daruvar for adequate space and its extension. A large number of members participated in conferences at home and abroad, and the Association provided support to some of its members. In 2004 the Association joined the CLA as a partner in a three-year project Information on European Union in Public Libraries, initiated by the Foundation for Civil Society Development. Marking the 30th anniversary of the Association's activity, a conference From the History of our Libraries was held in Daruvar on November 16, 2007, dedicated to the review of the historical development of our libraries.

Publishing activity

To assist the librarians in their work, the Association publishes a leaflet Aktualnosti, and the 1st number of Svezak, the official journal for library and information issues. In the 2nd number of the journal the address-book of the members was published, and in the 3rd number the review of  the Association's ten-year work. The publication of the journal then ceased. Its publication was continued in 1999, during the presidency of Zorka Renić, who undertook this responsible task and put a lot of effort in securing financial resources to publish the 1st number. In the following years Bjelovarsko-bilogorska and Koprivničko-križevačka counties, the cities of Bjelovar and Koprivnica and various donators subsidized its publication and the new president Dražen Herman persisted in finding more favorable conditions for printing.

            The journal Svezak is published annually and is promoted on the annual assembly, and since the website of the Association was created in 2002 it had been published both in print and electronically. Nine numbers of Svezak have been published by now, in which activities of libraries and librarians are presented to both professional and general public. As compared to the first Svezak of 1985, the new one has a rich design, thematic conclusiveness, distinct concept, well laid out sections and numerous authors from different types of libraries.

Front cover of the 1st number of renewed journal Svezak, 1999

Editor in chief of numbers 1-5 was Marjana Janeš-Žulj, and of numbers 6 until the present the editor in chief is Ljiljana Vugrinec. Full credit should be given to these colleagues for having done this demanding task , as well as to those members and colleagues who have spent unselfishly their intellectual effort in the process of  forming of the journal and have given up their fee (editing, proofreading, finding sponsors, front cover design and design for the Acknowledgment, writing of articles…) It must be emphasized that Svezak is a product of joint work of the members who care about the development of the library profession.

            The Association was among the first in Croatia to publish Guides through libraries (1996-1997), promotive publications which give notices of libraries and librarianship in the field of activity of the Association. Marking the 25th anniversary of  the Association's work, CD-ROM The Association of Librarians of Bilogora, Podravina and Kalnik Region 1977-2002 was published. In addition to printed publications, the Association has presented its work on the Internet since 2000 as well, when it was given its space at the website of  the Library «Fran Galović» Koprivnica, and since 2002 it has its space at www.geocities.com/svezak. By the end of 2007, the arrangements for changing the website of the Association were completed, which will from now on be at www.drustvo-knjiznicara-bpkp.hr.

 Awards and acknowledgements

            The acknowledgement for successful work and book spreading was set up in 1966 under the name «Pavao Markovac» Award, which was annually assigned to public and union libraries, and since 1973 to the individuals working in libraries on book and library profession promotion as well. In 1976 Zlata Škrbina, the director of Bjelovar Library, received this award. In the Association's archive there are no data on any other awarded members of our Association.

For numerous activities and special merits in culture our colleagues Dijana Sabolović-Krajina (1998), Ljiljana Ernečić (1999), Ilija Pejić (1996) and Marinko Iličić (1997) were awarded with the Order of Danica hrvatska with the effigy of  Marko Marulić. Our colleagues Jadranka Slobođanac and Ljiljana Ernečić received the Eva Verona award at the 32nd General Assembly of the Croatian Library Association in Lovran in 2000. This award is given to young librarians for their outstanding dedication to work, innovative practice and promotion of the library profession.. In 2004 Zorka Renić and Tatjana Cifrak Kostelac received the award of Foundation dr. Ljerka Markić-Čučuković for special contribution in the library profession for their project Preradović on the Internet. At the 35th General Assembly of the Croatian Library Association in Plitvice in 2006 our colleague Dijana Sabolović-Krajina was awarded with Kukuljević's Charter, the award which represents the aspect of public recognition to librarians for long-standing work and outstanding achievements on the advancing of the library profession.

The 25th Assembly in Virovitica

The assignement of the Acknowledgement of the Association of Librarians of Bilogora, Podravina and Kalnik Region for outstanding contribution in the Association's activity was reintroduced in 2002. The members of the Association who received it were Zorka Renić (2002), Anica Šabarić (2003), Goranka Pavelić (2004), Matija Sekulić, Josip Brabec and Ivan Zelenbrz (2005), Josip Blažek, Marjana Janeš-Žulj and Luca Matić (2006), Vesna Brozović, Ljuba Lazarac, Margot Moćan and Ljiljana Vugrinec (2007).

The Association today

At the time of its foundation the Association has faced similar problems, as well as today, among which the underratedness of the library profession is pointed out. The Association is dedicated to the improvement of the position of the profession, foundation and development of  all types of libraries, and to organized and systematic professional training of the members in accordance with new knowledge and technologies.

Translated by Martina Poturiček