INFORMATION SERVICES PROVIDED BY MUSEUM LIBRARIES FOR USERS IN THE 21st CENTURY: HOW MDC’S LIBRARY WORKS

MDC’s library is the only special library in Croatia whose holdings cover the discipline of knowledge about museums and museum activities. This paper will provide a brief outline of its collections, the proÞ le of users and their needs, as well as the services offered by the library. Special stress will be placed on new information services provided by MDC’s library, where a prominent position is held by the publication The Bibliography of Acquisitions of MDC’s Library. This publication has been published since 1994 in printed form, and since 2001 in parallel in an electronic form titled Acquisitions of MDC’s Library, (www.mdc.hr/prinove*). We will discuss the reasons for the electronic publication in more detail, its purpose and structure. In view of its contents, this database is unique in the virtual surroundings of Croatian museums and provides information about recent editions by Croatian and foreign museums, as well as by similar institutions. It is used as a bibliographical source of information about museum activities. Soon we will present new projects that will be realised within the framework of MDC’s redesigned website. This is a webopac of the library and the project Museum Book of the Month. The paper will present their aim and the structure of the idea as well as the user target group. Through the publication of MDC’s publications in electronic form, and the development of cumulative electronic bibliographies, MDC’s library is gradually digitalised and in this way opened to a broad group of users of information on the Internet