Vjesnik Newspaper Documentation kept by the Croatian State Archives as a source for the history of Istria

Abstract

Newspaper and periodicals libraries kept by numerous institutions for the purpose of documenting their activities represent a significant source of documentation for a historical overview of the activities and work of an institution, and often of the whole area of an activity, social events and the historical context of its creation. The Vjesnik Newspaper Documentation, as a unique collection of press clippings from daily publications and other periodicals published in Yugoslavia and Croatia for over fifty years, is a witness of the history of journalism and life in Croatia and neighbouring countries in the second half of the twentieth century. Vjesnik’s Hemeroteka – the Newspaper and Periodicals Library, as one of the series in the Vjesnik Fonds, has been kept by the Croatian State Archives since 2013 and contains about 580 linear meters of material – press clippings from daily and weekly publications and magazines published in Yugoslavia and Croatia in the period between 1962 and 2006. This collection has been an important source of information for journalists, the media industry and many experts and scholars ever since its emergence. For this reason, over the past fifteen years, there have been several attempts to digitize this material, which has continued in the Archives. On the example of Istria, the paper explores the possibilities of research of the Hemeroteka and the ways it can be used, more specifically within the topical unit of Domestic Affairs. As a significant part of this documentation is related to local topics, people and significant public life events, it appears useful for various thematic researches as a complement, link and illustration to other sources.