Summary
In Serbian history, endowments have a long tradition that goes back centuries. In turbulent history of our nation, a significant part of the material heritage has been preserved thanks to legacies, especially those left in favor of scientific and cultural institutions. As for libraries, as scientific and cultural institutions, this affects them in two ways: the first one relates to their foundation, since the most important national libraries were founded as the result of the act of endowing, and the second concerns library funds - the most precious materials in libraries originate from bequests. In this paper we presented personal libraries, special libraries and legacies in libraries of Republic of Srpska. There are 21 collections, whose size ranges from 200 to more than 5.000 bibliographic items. They were created in approximately the same time frame, but they nevertheless contain a variety of materials since they were formed by people of different profiles: carpenters, teachers, intellectuals, librarians, prominent scientists and academics. All of them contain materials important from the aspects of science, national culture and history. Professional processing of the items belonging to these collections is the obligation of librarians, who have to make them available for use and research. The first step in this process is a review of all such collections in Republic of Srpska, which is also the subject of our work. Raising awareness of the phenomenon of cultural heritage, of the importance of cultural monuments in the identity of a nation, of the value and treatment of cultural monuments of both national and local significance, is necessary, and should be the primary task of all cultural institutions in Republic of Srpska. This must be clearly stated in the cultural strategy which should specify concrete tasks for each institution and department, as well as the precise time frame for their achievement. Prior to protection, this process implies recognition and categorization of heritage materials. Libraries play an important role in this process in which they face serious tasks and a great responsibility.

Keywords:
endowment, Republic of Srpska, personal libraries, bequests, legacies, special collections, special funds, written heritage, cultural monuments

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