25th Anniversary of the Department of Information Sciences
In 2023, the Department of Information Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek celebrates 25 years of activity and successful work. Over the course of its 25 years of existence, numerous young professionals have been educated at the Department in the fields of library and information science, publishing and information technology. In addition to the faculty members employed at the Department, numerous Croatian and international professionals and researchers have participated in its work over the years. An overview of the Department’s teaching, research and professional activities carried out by its students and faculty members can be found in the Commemorative Publication of the Department of Information Sciences of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek.
Thanks to the quality and comprehensiveness of its work, the Department has made a lasting contribution to the higher education of information professionals in Osijek and Croatia and, guided by the principles of excellence and professionalism, will continue its mission of educating future generations of professionals, ensuring the continuous growth and development of the profession and research, and serving the community.
In the 2023/2024 academic year, the Department is marking its 25th anniversary by organising numerous professional, academic, popular science and socially engaged activities and events.
We invite you to join us by participating in selected activities and thus become and remain part of our story.
Members of the Department of Information Sciences
20th Anniversary of the Department of Information Sciences
On 21 January 2019, the Department of Information Sciences celebrated its 20th anniversary. On this occasion, a formal session and gathering of all former and current students (full-time and part-time) and faculty members was held in the Ceremonial Hall of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek. Following the welcoming address by Vice-Dean Leonard Pono, the participants were addressed by Vera Erl, the first Head of the Chair of Library Science, Tatjana Aparac-Jelušić, Boris Badurina (then Head of the Department) and Antonela Čepčar (President of the Libros Student Club). The event was covered by the media (in Glas Slavonije, on the Osijek031 portal, and on Slavonska televizija – report). As part of the anniversary celebrations, during the 2018/2019 academic year the Department also organised two conferences: BOBCATSSS and InfoDASKA.
The present-day Department of Information Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek developed from the Chair of Library Science at the former Faculty of Education in Osijek, which began operating in the 1998/1999 academic year with two study programmes: a full-time undergraduate double-major four-year study programme in Library Science lasting four years (8 semesters) and a supplementary two-year part-time study programme in Library Science lasting two years (4 semesters). The supplementary programme was open only to persons who held a university degree and worked in libraries without the appropriate professional qualification for positions requiring graduate librarians.
With the transition to the Bologna system of education, both study programmes were discontinued and the Chair of Library Science developed into the Department of Information Sciences. Since 2005, in accordance with the Bologna Process, new study programmes have been offered: single-major undergraduate and graduate study programmes in Information Science. In cooperation with the Department of Library Science at the University of Zadar and the Department of Cultural Heritage and Performing Arts at the University of Parma, the Department of Information Sciences designed and delivered the joint graduate study programme “Written Heritage in the Digital Environment”. In 2015, the graduate-level study programmes were revised, and today graduate programmes in Information Science, Information Technology and Publishing can be studied in double-major combinations.
The Department of Information Sciences was the holder of three research projects funded by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports: Evaluation of Library Services: Public and Academic Libraries, Digital Library of Croatian Heritage Printed Before 1800: Implementation Requirements, and Book Heritage in Croatian Library Collections: Challenges of Discovery and Interpretation. It is a co-organiser of the international conference Libraries in the Digital Age, which has been held since 2000, and the international conference Publishing Trends and Contexts, which has been held since 2013. It is also a co-publisher of Libellarium: Journal for Research in the Written Word, Books and Heritage Institutions, published since 2008. The Department participates in the COST project E-READ: Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation.
The positive and extensive experience of the Department of Information Sciences derives from the following strengths: high-quality staff with broad interdisciplinary interests and educational backgrounds, teaching supported by research and professional activities, teamwork, good information flow and communication among Department members, and the use of contemporary teaching methods and e-learning tools.