About the project

Virtual regional collection - ViZZ

Pula City Library began the project of digitizing the regional library materials that it owns in 2009. The goal of this project is to increase availability, protect materials, and offer access to information on regional cultural heritage to the general public. The first planned stage of the project was completed in Croatian Book Month in 2010. The results were presented on this website, and will be constantly updated and supplemented with newly digitized content.

The Goal and Purpose of the Project

The materials contained in the regional collection represent a unique source of information on the cultural, historical, social and scientific life of the city of Pula, its surrounding area and Istria. The availability and protection of regional publications and documents are important to the whole local community, as they contribute to the promotion and evaluation of regional cultural identity, and to the promotion of Istrian cultural heritage and Croatian heritage in general. Through the ViZZ project, we are opening the regional collection up to the public in virtual form and presenting rare and valuable regional materials which never leave the library. In this manner, precious and rare materials become available to a wider range of users at a time and place chosen by the user themselves. The primary objectives of the project are:

  • availability of the integral text/image via internet;
  • physical protection of original publications;
  • accessibility for a wider range of users;
  • insight into the beginnings of printing production in Istria;
  • recognition of the regional collection as the central information point in the region;
  • promotion and evaluation of the handwritten and printed cultural heritage of Istria

The long-term objective of the project is to continue the digitizing process and present on-line the most significant works published before 1950 which in terms of their contents and/or place of publication are connected to the area of Istria County and stored in Pula City Library. In accordance with the interests and needs of users, materials outside this framework, but which satisfy the selection criteria provided, will also be digitized.