15th Croatian Conference on Public Libraries taking place in Vinkovci by 11 Oct 2025
The 15th Croatian Conference on Public Libraries, organised by the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media, is being held at the Vinkovci City Library.
Taking place by 11 October 2025 under the theme Public Libraries in the Digital World, the conference opened on 8 October with a special welcome programme.
Apart from the Director of the Vinkovci library Vedrana Lugić, President of the Croatian Library Association’s Public Libraries Section Anita Malkoč Bišćan, Director of the Directorate for Culture and Tourism at City of Vinkovci Marija Liščić Drmić, Prefect of the Vukovar-Srijem County Ivan Bosančić and State Secretary at the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media Dražena Vrselja, the NSK Director General Dr Ivanka Stričević also welcomed the conference participants.
Modern librarianship in one of Croatia’s oldest public libraries
Taking the Vinkovci library as the perfect example of a library which successfully combines more than a century of its existence with effectively responding to the requests of contemporary library users, Dr Stričević emphasised the vital importance for the future of libraries of their readiness and ability to gear their activities to the new ways of creating, sharing, documenting and capturing knowledge.
Focusing on the significance of the as wide as possible digital transformation of libraries and the related impact of the developments in this field on the advancement and connectedness of the communities that they cater to, the conference programme will address a wide variety of topics.
Speakers from all across Croatia, including professionals from Slovenia and Belgium, will provide and gain insight into the latest developments in fields ranging from copyright, personal data protection and innovative possibilities for funding libraries, through using digitisation and digital storytelling as the key tools in preserving, making available and promoting library collections, to the response of libraries to the appearance of new literacies, rise of artificial intelligence and the need for strengthening Europe’s resilience and competitiveness.
Presentations, roundtables, workshops, film screenings…
In addition to presentations, the conference participants will share their experiences with digitising their libraries’ operations and services through roundtables, workshops and film screenings. The programme will present examples of a successful integration into library collections and services of e-books and audio e-books, increasing the visibility of local history library collections through their inclusion in the digital environment and of organising library activities aimed at the growth of democracy and social inclusion.
Apart from the Vinkovci City Library, this year’s conference’s host, the co-organisers of the conference are also the Croatian Library Association and the Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem Library Association, with the National and University Library in Ljubljana (Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica Ljubljana, NUK), Slovenian Library Association (Zveza bibliotekarskih društev Slovenije, ZBDS) and Slovenian Public Libraries Association (Združenje splošnih knjižnic) acting as partners and the Primat Logisitka company supporting the conference.
Learn more about the conference programme.
Photo by: Tomislav Čorak.