The history of the Library of the Faculty of Law proves the significance of the Faculty to the entire recent cultural history of Croatia.
The Faculty founded by the decree of Queen Maria Theresa as the Juridical Faculty within the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1776 directly succeeded the Political-Cameral Studies that had been established in Varaždin in 1769. The other two faculties (Theology and Philosophy) within the same institution were the continuation of the higher educational activity of the Jesuit Academy (Neoacademiae Zagrabiensis) established by the Royal Privilege in 1669. The Library of the Royal Academy took over a part of the holdings of the Jesuit Academy dissolved in 1773. It contained a smaller quantity of books in Canon and Roman Law, as well as the books from the legacy of Canon Baltazar Adam Krčelić (1715-1778), and the Academy’s professor of history took care of it. The common library collection grew slowly, and was considerably damaged by the occasion of collecting books for the University Library in Pest organised in 1788/1789. The estimated number of holdings increased from 2,800 in 1789 to 15,000 in 1836.
Materials were collected through donations, purchase and obligatory samples it was entitled to in 1816 (for publications of the University Press in Pest), in 1832 (for publications of the Lyceum Printing House in Cluj ) and in 1837 (from all printing houses in the territory of the Banovina of Croatia. The Library had no means for a systematic enlargement of its collection. Catalogues were made on several occasions: between 1780 and 1796, between 1819 and 1841, and between 1841 and 1846 (only the last one has been completely preserved). Stamping which consisted of combinations of letters and Arabic or Roman numerals was applied (e.g. CI. (Classis) 7.III.2.). The Library was situated in the same room of the Academy all the time (the west-wing room on the second floor of the building on St. Catherine’s Square), and was only temporarily open for the public in 1818 and 1819 - 1822. The librarian worked alone, occasionally being assisted by students.
In 1850 the Royal Academy of Sciences was reorganised by the educational reform, so that the Faculty of Philosophy was transferred to the Grammar School as its 7th and 8th form, while the Juridical Faculty was organised as the Royal Academy of Legal Science, without the right to bestow academic degrees. At the same time, the Juridical Faculty was the only institution of higher education in continental Croatia between 1850 and 1874. The new Academy took over the Library with 19,881 holdings and 1,973 copies. Material was collected by purchase, donations, exchange (the first exchange was recorded in 1858) and obligatory samples, for which it was entitled in 1852 (for the Banovina of Croatia) and 1857 (for the Military Region). Permanent means of the Library came from the contributions of the students of the Academy (introduced in 1853) and the state subsidy (introduced in 1856). During that period the card catalogue was made (1858), followed by the inventory catalogue in a book form (1860), alphabetical (1863) and professional catalogue (1867), thus adequately equipping the Library with modern catalogues. Triple stamping was used, marking the shelf, section and individual books in the section. During the renovation of the building of the Academy, the library was moved to new premises in 1857/58, and appropriate space was ensured for the reading rooms, librarian’s office and book storage. During the same academic year the Library was opened for the public and thus it literally became the only public library in Zagreb. During that period of time the librarian continued to work alone, with occasional assistance.
On the occasion of the establishment of the modern University in Zagreb in 1874, the professors of the Royal Academy of Legal Science took part in the appointment of the first Council of Professors. The Academy became the Faculty of Law and the Library of the Academy was transformed into the University Library. In the period between 1874 and 1886 the University Library met all the needs of professors and students. In 1882 the Faculty was relocated to its current location in the town centre.
However, the needs for promoting teaching and scientific work instigated the organisation of Seminars at the Juridical Faculty and formation of a reference library collection, which until the reorganisation of Seminars and the establishment of the new Library of the Faculty in 1906, had served as the basis for its development. The Head of the Seminar Library elected by the Faculty Council of Professors took care of the Library, but it had neither separate premises nor professional staff. During World War I the Library was temporarily relocated to the Old Town, as well as the entire Faculty. The estimated library collection grew from 1,200 to 4,500 holdings in the period between 1906 and 1925. In the beginning of the 1920s, the library holdings began to be recorded and special library labels for call numbers were introduced. Books were stamped in a manner preserved until today, with double stamping in which the Roman numeral marked the expert group of the material (e.g. II – Civil Law; III – Criminal Law), and the Arabic numeral marked an individual edition of a book by a certain author with a certain title. The labels for call numbers were glued at first in the upper left corner of the front cover, and as of the beginning of the 1960s in the upper right corner on the back cover. The activity of Professor Stanko Franko (1883-1953) as Head Librarian (1923-1953, with an interruption between 1943 and 45), was characterised by the creation of a modern library regarding catalogues (alphabetical by name, systematised by expert field and local inventory catalogue in 1926; special subject catalogue in 1934), premises (in 1928 the Library was moved to its present premises in the eastern wing on the first floor of the Faculty building; the first reading room for students was opened in 1934), professional staff (the first librarians were employed in 1933-34; the first assistant librarian was employed in 1947 and the first professional librarian in 1948) and the organisation of materials (between 1925 and 1949, apart from 17 old ones, 8 new expert categories of material were opened). Professor Marijan Horvat (1903-1967) as Head Librarian (1953-1967) and Dr. Zlatko Gašparović (1913-1995) as the first professional Chief Librarian (1958-1964) contributed to the creation of the contemporary physiognomy of the library.
The library stock is organised in 26 expert categories and it increased from 4,500 volumes of books in 1925 to 172,000 volumes of books and 39,000 volumes of periodicals in 2002. The material has been collected through purchase, donations (Faculty professors and other lawyers, as well as national and international organisations, particularly the United Nations) and exchange (since 1954 there has been an organised exchange for the Collected Papers of the Faculty of Law). The way of collecting material depended on concrete circumstances. A portion of books was obtained during the integration of the Faculty with other institutions (the Higher School of Administration in 1968; the Administrative College in 1983; the College for Social Workers in 1984). The Library has donated a part of the copies to other institutions.
Today there are separate alphabetical and professional catalogues for books published prior to 1944 and after 1944. The ISBN standard for book cataloguing has been applied since 1984, and cataloguing has been computerised since 1990. The entire old stock is currently being entered into the computer database. The cataloguing of periodicals began in 1952, and today there are separate catalogues for articles published between 1952 and 1971 and those published after 1971; this cataloguing has been computerised since 1993. Apart from the conventional material (books and periodicals), the unconventional material has been obtained recently (CD-ROM and databases). The computerised Library catalogue can be searched at the address: http://knjiznica.pravo.hr.
Although it is primarily intended for the teaching staff and students of the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, the Library is available to the staff and students of other faculties of the University of Zagreb, as well as scientists outside the University, who can use the material in the reading room or through interlibrary loans (which started in 1957). Since the Library is a higher educational library of a closed type, books and other material cannot be taken outside its premises.
Concerning its organisation, the Library consists of the Department of Books and the Department of Documentation at 14 Trg maršala Tita, the Department of Periodicals at 3 Trg maršala Tita, and the Library of the Social Work Study Centre at 51 Nazorova .The students’ reading rooms are situated at 3 and 14 Trg maršala Tita and 51 Nazorova.
