NSK citizen science programme focusing on Croatian musical heritage held as part of the 2024 Croatia’s Science Festival
The National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) joined the 2024 Croatian Science Festival by organising a special citizen science programme targeting secondary school students and focusing on the preservation and promotion of Croatia’s musical heritage.
Jointly prepared by the Library’s User Services Department and its Music Collection and spotlighting intelligence as this year’s Festival’s theme, the programme was held on 22, 23 and 25 April 2024. Aimed at promoting Croatian musical heritage, but also stimulating the students’ musical intelligence, it focused on researching the sound recordings from the private archive of Silvio Foretić (1940-), a highly unconventional and progressive Croatian composer.
Using citizen science to make heritage widely available
One of the Library’s most valuable acquisitions in 2023, the archive was given as a gift to the Collection by Mr Foretić himself and, among other highly valuable material, includes unpublished sound recordings. In order to contribute to making this material widely available, both to researchers and the general public, 68 programme participants analysed the recordings in terms of identifying instruments, non-musical sounds, voice types, languages used, etc., which activity also provided a valuable opportunity for them to further develop their musical intelligence.
Vital role of libraries in bringing science closer to society
While the staff of the NSK Music Collection prepared the material and resources which the students analysed, the staff of the Library’s User Services Department organised the entire research process based on their experience from Citizen-Enhanced Open Science in Southeastern Europe Higher Education Knowledge Hubs (CeOS_SE Project), a research project that NSK has taken part in since 2022. Aimed at including European citizens in pan-European efforts focusing on open science, the CeOS_SE project recognises the vital role of academic libraries in interconnecting society and science.
Further plans include the additional analysis of the gathered results and their publication in an academic journal.
Photos by: Dolores Mumelaš, Klara Kosić