The University Library “Svetozar Markovic” in Belgrade is one of the largest scientific libraries in the Balkans, with the most important function of meeting the educational and scientific needs of the academic population- students, university professors and researchers. This Library, as one of the cultural institutions of national importance, has an important task and obligation to preserve Serbian cultural and historical heritage and to make it available to all interested individuals.

1838-1921

The Library originally originates from the Lyceum of the Principality of Serbia and is the first library in Serbia built with the purpose. The Lyceum was founded in 1838 in Kragujevac, and in 1841, it was moved to Belgrade. It also had a library, the fund of which consisted of gifts from local and foreign donors, as well as an obligatory copy of the Principality of Serbia. The Lyceum of the Principality of Serbia was transformed to the Higher School by the Law from September 24, 1863, which included a central library and several seminar libraries. The Higher School became a University in 1905, when the central library was disbanded due to the lack of space and funds. The existing book collection was transferred to seminar libraries, but it soon became clear that the University needed a general scientific library.

After the First World War, work was accelerated on the restoration of the University and scientific work in general, and the then rector dr Jovan Cvijic played a huge role in this. The head of the Serbian seminar at the Faculty of Philosophy, Professor Pavle Popovic, took the initiative to establish a general library for the entire University, and he submitted a concrete proposal to the Council of the Faculty of Philosophy at the beginning of 1921. The decision of this Council, which was adopted by the University Senate, established the University Library. Faculty of Philosophy professors Pavle Popovic, Veselin Cajkanovic and Aleksandar Belic, members of the Commission for the Establishment of the University Library, had the task of implementing this decision with concrete proposals.

The University Library was founded in January 1921, and professor Uros Dzonic (1897–1968) was appointed as its first director.

At the end of 1920, the Carnegie Endowment donated 100,000 dollars to the Serbian government for the construction of a library in Serbia. It should be noted that the decision was made on the initiative of the two prominent Serbs who at the time lived in the USA. Those were Slavko Grujic (1871–1937), a diplomat, an MP of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Washington, and Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (1854–1935), a renowned physics professor at the Columbia University. For the construction of the University complex, the city of Belgrade gave the land of the former racetrack to the University, so it was agreed that the University Library would be built there. The project was carried out by the members of the Library Building Committee, university professors Dragutin Djordjevic and Nikola Nestorovic. The foundation stone was laid on June 23, 1921, when regent Prince Alexander, placed a charter on parchment in the foundation of the building. The laying of the foundation stone was attended by Patriarch Dimitrije, Minister of Education Svetozar Pribicevic, University rector Slobodan Jovanovic, representatives of the Carnegie Endowment and many other important guests, with the singing of the national anthem. Construction works on the building of the Library were completed in two years, but the problem of the lack of financial resources for equipping the library arose.

1921-1930

From January 1921, until the passing of the Law on the University in 1930, the University Library existed only on the basis of the decision of the university authorities – the Council of the Faculty of Philosophy and the Senate of the University, without a legal basis and administrative recognition from the Ministry of Education. The Law on Universities was supposed to legalize the Library and regulate the issues of establishing the University Library in Belgrade. That Law, more specifically Article 40, prescribes that in addition to special libraries for seminars, institutes and faculties, there are also general university libraries at universities. The following year, in 1931, the General Decree on the University of Belgrade was adopted. It (Article 238) is the legal regulation on university libraries and it was formally introduced: the establishment and existence of the University Library was recognized, its tasks were established and the method of managing the library was prescribed in short. The Library was officially opened on St. Cyril and Methodius, May 24, 1926. Professor Uros Dzonic remained in the position of a director until the beginning of the Second World War. He was assisted in his work by the Library Board, whose president was Pavle Popovic, professor of the Faculty of Philosophy, and whose members were representatives of all faculties. The main task of the Library was “to, as an independent university institution, help foster science and, as a scientific library, serve not only the students and professors of Belgrade University, but also all those involved in science”.

1946

During the Second World War, the Library did not work with users, a part of the building was occupied by the German army, but the building and the collections were mainly preserved. After the liberation, Milica Prodanovic, at the time a librarian, was appointed director of the Library. On the occasion of celebrating the centenary of the birth of Svetozar Markovic in 1946, the Library got its current name: University Library “Svetozar Markovic”.

After the Second World War, the application of contemporary library methods in organization and cataloguing has begun. The Classified Public Catalogue was formed and in coordination with the National Library of Serbia, Rules for Cataloging of the Society of Librarians of Serbia were created, which meant the beginning of the union of materials in libraries in Serbia. The Library established contacts with university and national libraries in the country and abroad, and intensive work on the exchange and interlibrary loan of publications began. A Service for providing information was established and cooperation with the faculty, seminar, institute and other libraries of Belgrade University was expanded.

1975-1984

When designing the Library building, warehouses for 300,000 volumes were planned, however, the Library fund grew very quickly, so in 1975 it reached over one million. Overloading in the warehouses also led to damage and cracking of the building. In the 1970s, preparations for the restoration, extension and adaptation of the Library began. Considering that the Library has the status of a cultural monument, which does not allow any changes in the external and internal architecture, it was decided to build an underground warehouse on two levels, which would have enough capacity for at least another 50 years. The Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade submitted the investment and technical documentation in 1980, and the works began in 1984. The construction works took a very long time, because it turned out that the foundations were not adequate and that the entire building had to be placed on reinforced concrete piles, which was done.

1987-1996

In accordance with the possibilities, the Library worked on the modernization of its activity and by the decision of the University in 1987, it was defined as the center of the information system of the University of Belgrade. In 1988, the automation of the Library’s operations and its inclusion in the System of Scientific and Technological Information of Yugoslavia began. An Electronic Catalogue was created, which is available online 24/7. Immediately after the introduction of Internet services in Serbia, the Library also enabled its members various searches, and the first domestic library website on the Internet was created in May 1996, in the University Library.

In 1996, the Library’s management made a decision to move the collections to the newly built warehouses, even though they were technically not prepared, because the placing of new publications became impossible. After the relocation of the collections, the facade of the building was renovated, the roof structure was repaired, and a fence was installed with the funds of the city of Belgrade. A part of the emptied warehouse premises was adapted for the work of users and employees of the Library.

2005

A long-time user of the library, a retired judge Dusan Korlat, helped the adaptation of the former book warehouse of 200 square meters into a reading room with a personal donation, which today is called the Small Reading Room. In 2006, the City of Belgrade financed the replacement of the heating installation and access for disabled users.

2007

With the funds of the donation from U.S. Steel Serbia, which continues the tradition of the Carnegie steelworks, the Student Reading Room and user space on the ground floor were renovated and adapted. In the hall on the first floor, the Knowledge Center is meant for exhibitions and for holding small gatherings and lectures.

2014

Fully aware that a national culture has to keep up with the development of the global process of digitization in order to preserve its cultural and scientific potential in the contemporary digital surroundings, one can conclude that the University Library “Svetozar Markovic” has gained rich experience in this context – the completion of the first digitized collection of manuscripts from the legacy of Isidora Sekulic, a Serbian writer; digitization of old Cyrillic manuscripts; establishment of Phaidra, a digital repository (establishment of E-theses system within the Repository for storing doctoral theses which is simultaneously a part of the first Serbian collection of grey literature) and the establishment of the Knowledge Centre; contribution to many international digitization projects (we are especially proud of the digitization of old Serbian newspapers and oriental manuscripts within the Europeana Newspapers and Europeana Libraries projects). The University Library has contributed to this project with more than 400,000 digitized newspaper pages with metadata which is the first and the biggest completely searchable digital collection in Cyrillic. Thus, the European Association of Research Libraries (LIBER) opened the door to these projects and helped us gain representative experience in this field.

The University Library continues to develop spatially as well, and thus, mainly thanks to the funds received from the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, 400 square meters of the attic area have been adapted into new reading rooms, equipped with the latest equipment for educational and research purposes.