Marta Deyrup
Librarian, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey
Field: Library Science
Host: University of Zadar, Croatia
Dates: April 30 – June 3, 2007
I arrived in Zagreb, Croatia on May 1st and took the bus to Zadar—a far different experience from when I took the same trip in 1997. At that time, the interior of the country was abandoned, the houses in ruins, and many of the roads destroyed. Now, 10 years later, we followed the newly constructed highway to the coast. This road has opened up the interior region, revealing an absolutely beautiful vista, with newly planted agricultural fields, rolling hills, and recently rebuilt small towns and cities. There is very little damage remaining—at least along the route that we took—to remind you of the war in Croatia that took place between 1991 and 1995.
Zadar is the second largest city in Dalmatia with a population of 72,000. It is very much a university town and is filled with the excitement and intensity that comes from having several thousand young people studying together in one location. The Zadar’s Department of Librarianship is the youngest in Croatia—just three years old. There, I had the opportunity to observe firsthand how the Bologna Process is changing education in Europe. Croatia has reformed its curriculum to meet new international accreditation standards. In the four weeks that I was in Zadar, I taught the last class of undergraduates under the “old” system as well as one of the classes that are part of this new educational reform.
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| Students in Digital Libraries I |
The students, many of whom wanted to become public librarians, were very motivated and eager to learn. The content of my two classes, Digital Libraries I and Reference Services and Information Resources, was unfamiliar to the students. The latter class required them to conceptualize and create a small digital library. I can only imagine how much of an effort it was for them to listen to me lecture in English, do their assignments in English, and navigate through Web and electronic database resources that are, again, for the most part in English. It made me realize how lucky we are as Americans to be able to communicate in our own language, really anywhere we find ourselves in the world.
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| Faculty members of the Department of Library Science at University of Zadar |
My last week in Croatia was spent in Dubrovnik, a city several hundred miles to the south. Dubrovnik is well known as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is stunningly beautiful. I attended the Libraries in the Digital Age Conference, a yearly event held in the city, and conducted a workshop, titled, The Millennial Generation: Its Use of Library Services and Expectations from the Digital Library.” Imagine my surprise to find that assumptions that I had made about college age academic library users proved absolutely wrong in this international context. The conversation that ensued among library students, staff and faculty from Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Belgium and the United States encouraged us all to think about the relationship between technology and access to information in our own countries.
I think, in closing, that the most valuable gift I’ve taken away from this experience is the deep satisfaction in having been able to contribute to this young library school. I also had the opportunity, through the generosity of my hosts, Srecko Jelusic and Tatjana Aparac Jelusic, to fully participate in university life as a member of the library school faculty—something that I also regard as a gift.
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