Biljana Milenković-Vuković
Etnografski institut SANU, Beograd
biljana.vukovic@ei.sanu.ac.rs

Milica Ševkušić
Institut tehničkih nauka SANU, Beograd
biblioteka@itn.sanu.ac.rs

No. 29 (November 2016), p. 18-29

Libraries of Research Institutes and Organizations:
Legislative Framework and Practice

Summary

In Serbia, there are more than seventy accredited research institutes, organizations and centers of excellence. In terms of size, the book holdings of their libraries often exceed those of academic libraries. However, work of their library staff is incorporated in the research output of Serbian scholars and the promotion of their scientific work and publications. Activities of these libraries are distracted between two ministries and two laws (the Law on Library and Information Science Activities, enacted under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and the Law on Scientific Research, enacted under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia). The status of library professionals working at these institutes is neither precisely defined nor adequately recognized and rewarded in any of these sectors. The paper analyzes the legal framework relevant to the activity of the libraries of research institutes and the problems related to the organization of work and the status of library professionals that arise from the vagueness of legislation and/or inconsistent implementation of the legislative solutions. It also explains why it is impossible for most research libraries to join the collaborative cataloguing system. The paper deals with the establishment of the Librarians’ Section of the Serbian Association of Institutes, a professional association striving to improve library and information services and raise the awareness about the importance and survival of libraries and librarians at research institutes. In the concluding remarks, the authors present possible solutions to the problems and suggest ways to improve the status of library workers at research institutes and organizations.

Keywords:

libraries of research institutes and organizations, librarians, library support staff, legislation, financing of libraries, professional titles, collaborative cataloguing, Librarians’ Section of the Serbian Association of Institutes

Submitted: 10th September 2016
Correction to the manuscript: 13th October 2016
Accepted for publication: 19th October 2016.

Libraries of Research Institutes and Organizations: Legislative Framework and Practice by Biljana Milenković-Vuković and Milica Ševkušić is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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