January 21, 2020 – The National and University Library in Zagreb is often found in the news these days: in addition to it being the headquarters of the Croatian EU Presidency, today a new Digital Laboratory was opened there.
The idea is for it to be the centre of the digital revolution in the Croatian libraries, and during the opening ceremony, a new mobile application called Smart Library was presented, which serves as a smart guide through the library area.
The Digital Laboratory is located in a part of the library dedicated exclusively to it, and it was originally founded in 2019 to help citizens find the creative use of the digital technologies and digital content of the library. Tatijana Petrić, the Director-General of the Library said that they’ve been working on the projects of digitalisation for a while and that the establishment of the Digital Laboratory is just another of the steps towards further opening of the Library to the needs of the modern user.
The libraries remain the important cell of the development of the modern society of the 21st century if they manage to bridge the digital void. This project is based on the numerous examples of the library laboratories from Europe and the world, including the Library of Congress in Washington, British National Library, Harvard University Library and many others. Petrić highlighted the experiences of the first Digital Laboratory in Croatia, founded by the Rijeka Library, tportal writes.
Dragana Koljenik, the manager of the Digital Laboratory said that its opening is the culmination of the enthusiasm of mostly young people who work at the Library, who invested their skill, energy and time into the idea for a year. Koljenik added that they wanted to develop in various directions while showing that their capital is different than what can be bought and sold on the market, but equally important in a balanced society. The Laboratory operates on three basic levels: as a service, educational and developmental. That means that it offers services such as 3D printing to its users, education, workshops and lectures, using the computer equipment to study or create something.
The Smart Library project is the mobile application for the library’s users, which serves as a prototype of the application of the IoT technologies within a library. The idea of the project is to create the basis for the development of a smart library. The application contextualises the 36.5 thousand square meters of space within the Library and makes sense connecting the 22 locations with 22 services offered to their users.
