The Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek began its activities alongside the establishment of the Teacher Training College in the 1961/1962 academic year. In 1977, the Teacher Training College was reorganized into the Faculty of Education, which developed into a teaching and research institution offering nine graduate study programmes in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. The arts and natural sciences programmes began separating from the Faculty in the 2002/2003 academic year, after which the Faculty of Education was reorganized into the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Filozofski fakultet. Osijek: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, 2010).
Figure 1. The Library in its early years
Figure 2. Library of the Faculty of Education
Over more than fifty years of operation, the Library has undergone several transformations.
The penultimate transformation took place in 2015, when the Foreign Languages Library was merged with the main library serving study programmes taught in Croatian. Until then, the library occupied two rooms on the second floor for the needs of foreign language study programmes (rooms 63 and 64), as well as four rooms (rooms 36 to 39) on the first floor for the needs of the other study programmes. Once all library materials for all study programmes had been consolidated on the first floor, the Library occupied rooms 34 to 39. This area included the Main Information and Circulation Desk, the Information Desk for Reference Materials and Periodicals, the Group Study Reading Room and the Silent Study Reading Room.
Figure 3. Main Information and Circulation Desk in the former Library in the Faculty’s main building
Figure 4. Group Study Reading Room in the former Library in the Faculty’s main building
Figure 5. Silent Study Reading Room in the former Library in the Faculty’s main building
The Library underwent its most recent transformation in 2019, when it moved to another building at 4 Školska Street.
Figure 6. The Library building from 2019 to the present
The Library offers its users two reading rooms, 23 computers and 52 study places.
Figure 7. Group Study Reading Room in the present-day Library
Figure 8. Silent Study Reading Room in the present-day Library
The ground floor houses the library collection, the information desk and an area for persons with disabilities. The acquisition, professional processing and storage of various types of materials provide users with access to 65,947 volumes of books, journals, audiovisual materials, doctoral dissertations and master’s theses. The valuable rare books collection includes, among other precious works, Nova slavonska i nimacska gramatika by Mathiam Relkovich from 1767 and Dragutin Parčić’s Croatian-Italian Dictionary, which has also been digitized and is available to users on our website. The development of the Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek is guided by a vision of a library capable of recognizing the changing information needs of its users, providing innovative services, and responding to emerging challenges in a prepared and creative manner.