NSK DigiLab opens its new office
On 21 January 2020, the National and University Library in Zagreb opened a new office of its Digital Laboratory, NSK DigiLab.
The opening of the new office included addresses by the Vice-Rector for Science, Inter-Institutional and International Cooperation at the University of Zagreb Professor Miloš Judaš, Acting Director General of the National and University Library in Zagreb Dr Tatijana Petrić, while the Head of NSK DigiLab Dragana Koljenik presented DigiLab’s services and activities.
The National and University Library in Zagreb set up its DigiLab to stimulate innovation and provide opportunities for the Library’s users, library professionals and the general public for learning about and experimenting with new technologies. NSK DigiLab’s motto, Making digital technologies available to everyone, highlights the necessity on the part of libraries to provide access to digital technologies as the latest means of social inclusion.
NSK DigiLab’s activities will include the organisation of educational programmes, workshops and lectures in the field of STEM, providing 3D printing services, and offering ICT equipment and software for creative, educational and research purposes, with regard to which NSK DigiLab will regularly be posting updates on its website.
In her address, NSK Acting Director General Dr Tatijana Petrić emphasised the Library’s many achievements in the field of digitisation and the development of digital library services. In this context, Petrić mentioned NSK Digital Collections, Croatian Web Archive, the Library’s online exhibitions website, Glagoljica.hr website, the successful eResources project, and the most recent digitisation project that the Library is a part of, Digitisation of Cultural Heritage – eCulture. Petrić also insisted on the importance of the impact that NSK DigiLab will have on the introduction of new technologies into all other Croatian libraries, and thus the increased availability of these technologies to the wider public.
Head of NSK DigiLab Dragana Koljenik presented one of DigiLab’s first projects, focusing on IoT technology and its implementation in libraries (Smart Library – prototip primjene loT tehnologije u knjižnica). It included the development of Smart Library NSK, a mobile application for the Library’s users offering a virtual guide through its services and premises.
NSK DigiLab’s main partner is EPSON, while its partner in the Digital Citizen project is the Croatian institute for the development and growth of innovation among the young population (Institut za razvoj i inovativnost mladih, IRIM). It is also part of the SMATH project of the Zagreb Innovation Centre, as well as of the International GLAM Labs Community.
