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The purpose of this paper is to find out whether the students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) in Osijek, Croatia, interact online with any sort of e-democracy or e-government information.

This paper presents the findings of a pilot-study conducted among the undergraduate and graduate students of the FHSS in Osijek. The research was conducted in May 2015 on a sample of 246 students. The research was carried out by means of an online and paper survey and reached 59.91 per cent of the population of students enrolled in the first year of undergraduate and graduate studies.

Students in our sample spend a lot of time online. They are relatively active online when it comes to finding information connected with their academic responsibilities (e.g. 77.2 per cent of the students of the sample have gone online for finding information about exams, scholarships, etc.), but rarely engage in democratic processes within the academic community (only 11.8 per cent have contacted their student representative on the University Student Board). They are even less interested in democratic processes within the local community (8.1 per cent have contacted their local authority representatives regarding an administrative or communal matter).

This is the first research of FHSS students’ perceptions and views regarding their engagement and their information behavior regarding e-democracy and e-government processes and one of the very few such researches in Croatia.

This paper aims to present the results of interviews conducted with public library directors and academic Chief Librarians on various topics connected with library quality in order to determine the library culture in those libraries.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with ten library directors.

These interviews represent some of the findings of the project “Evaluation of library and information services: public and academic libraries”. The project investigates library culture in Croatian public and academic libraries and their preparedness for the introduction performance measurement activities. The interviews reveal that library culture has changed positively over the last few years and that library leaders now have a positive attitude towards quality and evaluation activities.

The findings from the interviews with ten library directors form only a small part of the results of a much larger and comprehensive data gathering exercise (including survey and statistical data).

Library culture in Croatian libraries is a relatively new concept and as such has not been actively developed and/or created. This article brings the newest update on views, opinions and atmosphere in Croatian public and academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of the customer satisfaction survey of the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek Library. The purpose of the survey was to determine the level of satisfaction among two customer groups: students and faculty.

The methodology utilised was a five‐page satisfaction questionnaire.

This paper presents the findings of the first customer satisfaction survey of the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek Library. The satisfaction data are collected as a part of a wider library evaluation program and present the first step in future continuous measurement of customers’ expectations and their satisfaction.

The structure and the size of the sample do not secure the representativeness. Among the student population, the paper was distributed only to those who visited the library, which, in a way, reduces the validity of the sample (those who are dissatisfied with library services may avoid the library). Among the faculty, the survey was distributed via e‐mail, but some faculty members do not check their e‐mail accounts regularly (or not at all).

This is the first measurement of customer satisfaction for the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek Library. Furthermore, there are only a few similar papers that report on research in Croatian libraries in international literature.

This paper aims to present the proposed methodology for the first scientific project to evaluate Croatian academic and public library services.

The project shown in the paper will: collect statistical data on state‐of‐the‐art in libraries, as well as public and academic library staff opinions on evaluation activities in their libraries; define dimensions of effectiveness that will differentiate academic and public libraries; show differences in views between library management and staff; and encourage more positive attitude of library staff toward evaluation activities.

The paper finds that the possible obstacles to creating a positive climate for performance measurement in the Croatian library and information science community might be, among other things: insufficient number of staff, inexperience and lack of skills needed for data collection and processing, lack of motivation, fear of being made redundant, etc. This project will hopefully help uncover all the weak spots of Croatian library community. However, certain problems are anticipated in getting Croatian librarians to express their real opinions.

The project is considered of utmost importance for the Croatian LIS community because it will not only describe the present situation, but it will also draw attention to evaluation topics preparing librarians by the means of a set of workshops and an evaluation manual designed especially for Croatian library community for systematic and dedicated work on measurement and improvement of library services.

The paper shows that this is the first project of its type in Croatia.

Croatia is a multinational and multicultural country. According to the 1991 census there are 21.9 per cent various ethnic and cultural minorities in Croatia. Osijek‐Baranya county (Eastern Croatia) is the third in number of Roma people in Croatia. The Romany minority is in a particularly difficult position regarding the integration with the rest of the Croatian population. Their marginalisation can be seen at four levels: economic, cultural, territorial and political, and their integration becomes an ever‐increasing problem. Libraries have a potential to help the Romany minority towards their way out from marginalisation and segregation. This paper looks into the information needs of Romany minority and their awareness of those needs as well as the presence of library services aimed at that very minority in the area of Baranya (Eastern Croatia).

Every profession has the urge to question and investigate its own identity as well as its reception by the society. This paper presents the findings of the study conducted in Croatia at the end of 2001, but also gives an overview of the similar studies conducted in this region since the mid‐ 1990s. This research was conducted among the librarians and library users and non‐users, with the aim to obtain insight into opinions that the members of our profession and those outside it – the public – have of libraries, library services and librarians. The research was conducted by the method of interview on the representative sample, and the results were analyzed by way of qualitative analysis.

This paper seeks to investigate the degree to which the unfavourable state of the Croatian higher education system (the lack of vision, goals and objectives, insufficient budgeting and no quality control system) reflects on the organization, development and continuous dedication to quality of academic libraries in Croatia.

The situation is illustrated by a study conducted among academic libraries of the University Josip Juraj Strossmayer in Osijek in 2003. A questionnaire for librarians and one for chief librarians was used and data were processed by software package StatSoft, Statistica 6.0. Next to the descriptive statistics, Mann‐Whitney test, Pearson Chi‐Square, Maximum Likelihood and Fisher exact Chi‐Square test were used. Annual reports were also used.

This research revealed that the academic libraries of Osijek University are unprepared for performance measurement. It was clear that they are unfamiliar with many elements of evaluation. Librarians are usually excluded from decision making regarding library operations, which results in their low motivation. However, the greatest dissatisfaction of academic librarians of Osijek University comes from their low status. Furthermore, librarians rarely get support from their colleges for their professional education (no travel money, no paid leave, etc.)

Osijek University is a relatively small university. It consists of nine colleges, one institute and one university library. The size of the target sample influenced the choice of research instruments – questionnaire, interviews with chief librarians and analysis of library annual reports.

This was the first such study in Croatia and its main goal was to test theoretical approaches and research methodology, which could be later applied for a study on a nation‐wide level.

Discusses the papers presented at the Fifth World Conference on Continuing Professional Development for the Library and Information Professions organised by the Round Table on Continuing Professional Development of IFLA held August 2002. They included theoretical discussions, research reports, descriptions of best practice, case studies, project evaluations and state‐of‐the‐art reviews presented by library and information professionals.