NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN ZAGREB

Foreign Croatica Collection

Considering the history and largeness of Croatian emigrant population, as well as a substantial body of works by Croats translated into foreign languages, the National and University Library in Zagreb set up its Foreign Croatica Collection in 2007, as part of its Acquisition and Collection Development Department.

The Collection focuses its activity on locating, assembling, registering and promoting publications by Croats outside Croatia, as well as those about Croatia or Croats and translations of the works of Croatian authors by non-Croatian authors. It makes a significant part of special holdings included in Croatica, the Croatian national collection, and was created based on resources collected from all continents since 1945 and included in the so-called Croatian Emigrant Publications Collection (Zbirka iseljeničkoga tiska), which had started operating in 1988 and had never been established as one of the Library’s formal organisational units owing to political factors in former Yugoslavia.

The collection assembles and makes available works by Croatian authors published in various languages in different countries, works in the Croatian language and those including references to Croatia and Croats published outside Croatia, works in other languages with Croatian co-authors, translators, editors, illustrators, painters, designers, etc. Since 2011, the Collection’s holdings have been available on open access shelves in the reading room on Floor 1.

The covers of some of the titles donated to the NSK Foreign Croatica Collection by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media in 2020 and 2021.