Ninety years ago, on May 24th 1926, the new building of the University Library was opened.
By celebrating the anniversary, the Library is marking the Cyril and Methodius Saints Day also known as the Day of Slavic Literacy and Culture. On the occasion the University Library “Svetozar Marković” organizes “Digital Cyrillic” exhibition accompanied by a virtual and web exhibition.
At the grand opening at the Carnegie Hall of the Library on May 24 th 2016, the audience will be addressed by Prof. dr Vladimir Bumbaširević, Rector of the University of Belgrade, Prof. dr Aleksandar Jerkov, Head of the University Library “Svetozar Marković”, Mrs. Tamara Butigan Vučaj, Deputy Head of the National Library of Serbia, dr Adam Sofronijević, Deputy Head of the University Library “Svetozar Marković” and via Skype by Prof. dr Günter Mühlberger from the University of Innsbruck and Mr. Claus Gravenhorst, Director Strategic Initiatives at CCS Content Conversion Specialists GmbH in Hamburg.
The recording of the opening of the exhibition is available on the following link.
In addition to the selection of books about the work and influence of Cyril and Methodius, the translations of works of Slavic literatures into Serbian, published from the mid 19th century to the beginning of the First World War will be presented. These translations have revived cultural links between Serbs and other Slavic people and languages, whose unity was strengthened by Cyril and Methodius 1000 years ago. The authors of the exhibition are librarians from the University Library “Svetozar Marković” dr Zoran Bajin, Vesna Vuksan and Milena Kostić.
Cards from the paper catalog which used to be leafed through have now been digitized and will be be displayed on the exhibition. The cards were digitized within the project “Creation of the Wholesome Catalog of the University Library ‘Svetozar Marković’” supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 2015.
Trying to keep up with the new technological trends in librarianship, and bearing in mind the protection of rare books, the Library bought Magic Box, a cabinet display which provides virtual, yet very real experience of leafing through the digitized valuable and protected library collections.
The Gospel, which is an exquisite representative of old manuscripts written in the script created for the Slavic people by Cyril and Methodius, will be displayed in Magic Box on the day of the exhibition.
The digitized Gospel can be leafed through on the interactive display and also representative copies from the collections of the University Library: old cyrillic manuscripts, historical newspapers, photographs and the selection of books displayed on the shelves on the exhibition.