(Digitale) Wenden in der phraseologischen und parömiologischen Forschung
From 21 to 23 May 2026, Associate Professor Melita Aleksa Varga, PhD, and Borna Petrović, MA, Adjunct Assistant, represented the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage at the international conference (Digitale) Wenden in der phraseologischen und parömiologischen Forschung at the Institute of German Studies of the University of Wrocław. At the conference, they presented the paper Digitalisierte Sprichworttradition: Portal der kroatischen Sprichwörter in which they presented the results achieved so far through the Croatian Proverbs Portal projects.
8th Professional Conference Unlocking the Potential of Libraries: Accessibility of Cultural and Other Content for Persons with Disabilities
On 20 May 2026, Martina Hranić, a first-year graduate student of Information Science, Borna Petrović, MA, Adjunct Assistant, and Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD, represented the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage at the 8th professional conference “Unlocking the Potential of Libraries”, where they delivered the presentation “Digital Accessibility of Croatian Proverbs for Persons with Reading Difficulties”.
19th Conference of Special and Academic Libraries
From 1 to 3 December 2025, Assistant Professor Tihana Lubina, PhD, and Borna Petrović, MA, representing the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage, participated in the 19th Conference of Special and Academic Libraries in Lovran with the presentation The Role of the Museum of Slavonia Library in Preserving and Interpreting Osijek’s Cultural Heritage: The Example of Hrvatski list in the Newspaper Collection, in which they presented the activities of the Newspaper Collection of the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, which plays an exceptionally important role in the development, processing, preservation and presentation of newspaper collections as indispensable sources for studying the cultural history of the city of Osijek.
28th Archives, Libraries, Museums Seminar
On 25 November 2025, the 28th Archives, Libraries, Museums Seminar: Opportunities for Cooperation in the Environment of Global Information Infrastructure was held in Osijek. As part of the work of the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage, the workshop Subject Analysis of Contemporary Proverbs was led by Borna Petrović, MA, Associate Professor Melita Aleksa Varga, PhD, and Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD. The objectives of the workshop were to train participants to determine the aboutness of contemporary Croatian proverbs using online corpus databases, to teach them the methodology of subject analysis of contemporary Croatian proverbs, and to encourage them to consider proverbs as functional discursive units and part of intangible cultural heritage.
Round Table – The Impact of Contemporary Library Spaces on Encouraging Reading
On 27 October 2025, Borna Petrović, MA, and Assistant Professor Tihana Lubina, PhD, representing the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage, participated in the Round Table The Impact of Contemporary Library Spaces on Encouraging Reading at Zadar City Library. They delivered the presentation Space Management in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of the Storage of Professor Stanislav Marijanović’s Legacy from the Perspective of an Information Sciences Student addressing issues related to the storage and management of a legacy received by the Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek.
5th DARIAH-HR international conference Digital Humanities & Heritage: Rethinking Heritage across STEM, Humanities, and Arts
From 22 to 24 October 2025, Assistant Professor Tihana Lubina, PhD, and Borna Petrović, MA, representing the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage, participated in the international conference 5th DARIAH-HR International Conference – Digital Humanities & Heritage 2025: Rethinking Heritage across STEM, Humanities, and Arts held in Osijek. Through the poster presentation From Printed Pages to Digital Interface: Thematization of Desire in Osijek’s Historical Periodicals they presented project activities to be carried out within their working group, which focuses on the thematisation of desire in historical periodicals through the digitisation and content analysis of articles from the Osijek daily newspaper Narodna obrana. The project activities will be carried out as part of the institutional project The Language of Desire in Literature and Culture (project leader: Professor Biljana Oklopčić, PhD).
6th Round Table with International Participation Local Heritage Collections in Libraries of the Pannonian Region
On 12 September 2025, 
the 6th Round Table with International Participation Local Heritage Collections in Libraries of the Pannonian Region was held at Požega City Library. Assistant Professor Tihana Lubina, PhD, and Borna Petrović, MA, representing the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage, together with Assistant Professor Ivana Perkušić, PhD, from the Department of Sociology, participated with the poster presentation Newspaper Advertisements as a Reflection of the Social Values and Identity of the City of Osijek . The research showed that newspapers in the Pannonian region were an important medium for promotion and information, as well as a reflection of the social values and identity of the local community, and that they contribute to a better understanding of the development of market communication and cultural practices in Osijek at the turn of the 20th century.
11th International Scientific Conference “Phraseology and Paremiology: Preserving Linguistic, Literary and Teaching Heritage”
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On 11 and 12 September 2025, the 11th International Scientific Conference “Phraseology and Paremiology: Preserving Linguistic, Literary and Teaching Heritage” was held, organised by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split on the initiative of the Department of Italian Language and Literature and the Phrasis Association (Associazione Italiana di Fraseologia e Paremiologia).
Associate Professor Melita Aleksa Varga, PhD, from the Department of German Language and Literature represented the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage at the conference with the presentation From Tradition To Technology: The Evolution of the Croatian Proverbs Portal, in which she presented the progress made so far in the development of the Croatian Proverbs Portal and its potential as the first Croatian digital paremiological collection of its kind.
3rd International Scientific and Professional Conference Continental Croatia: Historical Context, Current Issues and Future Perspectives
On 11 and 12 September 2025, the 3rd International Scientific and Professional Conference Continental Croatia: Historical Context, Current Issues and Future Perspectives was held at the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Đakovo. Two presentations were delivered on behalf of the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage.
The first presentation, Digital Cultural Heritage – The Example of Developing the Croatian Proverbs Portal , was delivered by Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD, Borna Petrović, MA, and Professor Boris Badurina, PhD. In addition to the Portal, the presentation introduced the methodology of subject analysis and classification of Croatian proverbs from the 12th to the 19th century. Through this presentation, the two projects of the Croatian Proverbs Portal carried out so far were placed within the context of Croatian intangible cultural heritage and presented as an important step forward in its digital valorisation, with particular emphasis on the fact that a systematic, interdisciplinary and digitally supported approach to the processing, preservation, presentation and interpretation of cultural heritage is achievable in the Croatian context as well.
The second presentation, Hrvatski list as a Source for Tracing the Cultural Dynamics of the City of Osijek in 1926 and 1936 , was delivered by Assistant Professor Tihana Lubina, PhD, Borna Petrović, MA, and Marina Vinaj, PhD, Library Adviser. The presentation covered the history of journalism and the press in Osijek and the newspaper Hrvatski list, as well as research conducted using content analysis of the City News section. The research showed that Hrvatski list is an exceptionally valuable source for tracing the cultural dynamics of the city of Osijek during the interwar period.
EUROPHRAS 2025
From 19 to 22 May 2025, Associate Professor Melita Aleksa Varga, PhD, from the Department of German Language and Literature, and Borna Petrović, a second-year graduate student of Information Science and English Language and Literature from the Department of Information Sciences, represented the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage at the 13th international EUROPHRAS conference in Aarhus, Denmark, with the presentation The Croatian Paremiological Thesaurus: A Digital Tool for Teaching and Preserving ProverbsThe Croatian Proverbs Portal developed at the Centre was presented during the session. The methodology of subject and linguistic analysis of proverbs and the implications for the further development of the Portal were also presented. Finally, a discussion was held on its usefulness and applicability within the academic community as well as the wider public.
7th Professional Conference Unlocking the Potential of Libraries: Towards More Successful Education of Persons with Reading Difficulties
On 15 May 2025, Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD, and Borna Petrović, a second-year graduate student of Information Science and English Language and Literature, represented the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage at the 7th professional conference “Unlocking the Potential of Libraries” with the presentation “Accessing Meaning through Linguistic Layering: The Croatian Proverbs Portal as a Digital Tool for Inclusive Exploration of Croatian Folk Proverbs”.
The conference was held online and organised by the Ivan Goran Kovačić City Library in Karlovac under the overarching theme “Towards More Successful Education of Persons with Reading Difficulties”.
14th Festival of Croatian Digitisation Projects D-fest
On 8 and 9 May 2025, the 14th Festival of Croatian Digitisation Projects D-fest, a conference dedicated to the digitisation of cultural and scientific heritage, digital asset management systems, digital products and services, and the promotion of digitisation projects, was held at the National and University Library in Zagreb.
At the conference, graduate students of Information Science Kristina Gagulić, Monika Brandić and Borna Petrović, together with their mentor Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD, representing the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage, delivered the presentation “Artificial Intelligence as an Aid in the Subject Analysis of Proverbs on the Croatian Proverbs Portal”, presenting the process of subject analysis and classification of Croatian proverbs from the 12th to the 19th century, with particular reference to the assistance provided by large language models.
European Guidelines for Cooperation between Libraries, Archives and Museums: Heritage Institutions in the (Post)Digital Age
On 3 and 4 October 2024, Associate Professor Kristina Feldvari, PhD, and second-year graduate students of Information Science Irena Poje and Borna Petrović participated in the conference European Guidelines for Cooperation between Libraries, Archives and Museums: Heritage Institutions in the (Post)Digital Age in Sarajevo with the poster presentation Developing a Thesaurus of Croatian Paremiological Material, produced as part of the project Development of the Croatian Proverbs Portal from the 12th to the 19th Century at the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek.
The conference was organised by BAM – Association of Information Professionals: Librarians, Archivists and Museologists, and this year’s conference focused on key issues and challenges faced by heritage institutions in the context of digital transformation.
Presentation of the Project Digitisation of Croatian Grammaticographical and Paremiological Material of the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage
On 4 and 5 May 2023, the 12th D-fest was held at the National and University Library in Zagreb, where the Centre for Research on Cultural Identity and Regional Heritage of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek was also presented. On this occasion, Associate Professor Ana Lehocki-Samardžić, PhD, and Associate Professor Jadranka Mlikota, PhD, presented the project Digitisation of Croatian Grammaticographical and Paremiological Material, carried out within the Centre.
The diverse programme of the 12th D-fest provided insight into the state and development of the digitisation of materials in Croatia. At the very beginning of the Festival, the results achieved so far by the e-Kultura project, implemented by the Ministry of Culture and Media and partner institutions, were presented as part of the introductory panel discussion. The discussion offered insight into the implementation of the project from the perspective of all stakeholders, who highlighted a number of positive project outcomes while also openly explaining the challenges expected in its further implementation. Two workshops also contributed to a better understanding of the e-Kultura system and portal and their functionalities.
This year’s D-fest also featured the traditional presentation of completed projects involving digitisation and digital asset management, new digital products and services, and useful guidelines. The projects presented were primarily focused on digitisation, but also on encouraging audience development, digital storytelling and the accessibility of materials. We are pleased that this year’s D-fest also presented several interesting citizen science projects and examples of audience engagement through various campaigns, as well as projects for preserving materials through digitisation and creative initiatives involving the development of virtual exhibitions and an application. D-fest also addressed the current topic of artificial intelligence and the opportunities and challenges it brings to the heritage sector. Ten posters additionally provided insight into new projects and interesting approaches to the digitisation of different types of materials.
This year, once again, we had the opportunity to meet the true heroes of digitisation projects – our dedicated, creative and enthusiastic colleagues who overcome numerous obstacles in the digitisation of materials and, through their completed projects, uncover new stories, contribute to broader access to cultural heritage, and strengthen connections with the local community. See you in May 2024.
Ana Lehocki-Samardžić and Renata Petrušić
