The Beginnings of Organized Library Activity in the Museum of Slavonia Through the Documentation of the Guardian Vjekoslav Celestin

The museum library was recognized as a necessary segment of museums at the end of the 19th century, but its role is not only to disseminate knowledge about museum objects and the benefit of a narrow circle of professionals, which, unfortunately, is still a common consideration today. The library is an important part of museum activity, both professional and scientific, as well as exhibition, valuable monuments. Through hard work and efforts of the curator Vjekoslav Celestin, who started keeping the museum documentation, which is the largest museum library in our country today, beginnings of the library can be traced. On the basis of Vjekoslav Celestin’s thinking about the necessity of a library in a museum, and its continued enrichment with material, for the purpose of its museological as well as scientific function, the library department of the Museum of Slavonia continues the tradition today, with numerous problems that have plagued its predecessors, but with an important role in the cultural and scientific life of the Museum, the city and beyond. Among the museum documentation stored in the History Department, we found a recent manuscript list of 45 pages written by Vjekoslav Celestin, with 1141 entries, listing mostly literary material and, in part, cultural and historical: manuscripts, prints, photographs and artistic paintings. This is so called The list of blue numbers which, in the opinion of museum librarians, represents the oldest library inventory, not only of museum libraries, but in general, the oldest list of library material in Osijek. The list of blue numbers corresponds to other museum documentation stored in the History Department’s Documentary Collection. The beginnings of the museum library were thoroughly recorded, as well as efforts to acquire material, equipment, creating the foundations for the interlibrary exchange of museum publications, the need to subscribe to professional and scientific publications, opening up to users, researchers, taking care of the local library material - questions and problems still known and current today. And it was precisely on the track of recognizing the two levels of museum library material - scientific and cultural-historical - that Celestin laid the foundations for today’s thinking of the library of the Osijek Museum. It is important to point out that other guardians of museum treasures who came after Celestin, and hopefully those who are yet to come, will be aware of the importance and value of museum library material, and will persevere in collecting and presenting library material as an invaluable interpreter of cultural history