Today

Since 1st November 2006, the Library has been officially an independent institution. There are currently four employees. It was established by the City of Rovinj.

Its present holdings include some 35,000 items covering all the important fields and disciplines that are required today by readers of all ages and education backgrounds - knowledge, science, art… More than 90 % volumes are freely available to readers.

The sources are not only in Croatian but also in Italian and, to a lesser degree, in English, German and French.

The collection of references is quite rich, mainly consisted of encyclopaedias, lexicons, dictionaries, bibliographies and monographs.

The Library is subscribed to periodical editions, but not to daily newspapers, so it is possible to read through some 40 journals and other periodicals.

We should mention the Histrica County Collection, literary-cultural Croatica, and a special department with books for children and the youth.

About 1,000 members are registered in the Library every year, but the number of real users is constantly going up.

Apart from the people who either permanently or temporarily live in Rovinj and their seasonal guests, the Library holdings are often used by the people from the nearby places, such as Bale, Kanfanar, Rovinjsko Selo and, to a lesser extent, Žminj (with its own library today).

The reading room, which is also the working area for members and users, has 12 seats. Four computers are networked, so that a greater part of the entire holdings is available for searching on the Internet catalogue. The Library is equipped with all more important electronic and technical devices and tools.

The holdings are annually renewed with 1,000-1,500 new volumes, which are either bought or donated.

Plans

We are presently busy with our plans about computerised registration and lending services, system needed for on-line search, and establishment of multimedia department (CDs, DVDs and other e-sources). The Internet, inter-network search has not been possible without librarians. The partial digitalisation of holdings is a matter of the near future.

It will not be possible to open children's playroom until the area is extended and purposefully arranged.

As the Library does not have any multipurpose hall, cultural and artistic events cannot be held here. Other more appropriate areas in the city are sometimes used for these programmes instead.

It would be a good idea to open a special reading room as a part of the Library and locate it in the heart of the old city. The Library does not even have any depository.

Our crucial problem therefore refers to the SPACE, very inappropriate for such a long time. The space we are currently using is so restricted and not enough for our activities - it does not cover even 200 m2, including the head and secretary offices. It is actually just a third of the space required by Croatian standard.

There is no doubt that the lack of adequate space prevents us from seriously developing library activities in terms of spirit and time requirements; it also affects the expected quality of services in comparison with more advanced libraries in culturally more developed places in Croatia.

There is a project aimed at the reconstruction, refurbishment and expansion of the Library: its first phase considers the basement, presently the basement of building where the Library is based, while the second phase refers to the wing in the south, where the park is currently situated. Finally, the library could have some 600 m2 available, which would make us closer the required Croatian standards.

Yet, if we remember that, in the mid-1980s, Rovinj was one of the rare municipalities in the coastal part of Croatia of that period without its national or city library - the previous one had been closed for years - it may be concluded that a cultural institution has been established and developed in Rovinj for the last two decades. New, easily recognisable as we believe, useful, and certainly worthy of notice.

Boris Biletic