Library
The Biblical Institute’s library is an academic theological library that operates as a department of the Biblical Institute in Zagreb. As such, the Library is registered in the Croatian Library Register maintained by the Croatian Ministry of Culture.
The Library was founded in 2001 and operates at two locations in the center of Zagreb. Amruševa 11 serves as a lending library, while Gajeva 9 serves as a reference and study room.
Over the last 15 years the library has developed dynamically and today it manages more than 13.000 books. Although it is one of the smallest and youngest theological libraries in Croatia, its holdings have a major importance in the education of students, pastors and the public in Croatia and ex-Yugoslavia countries. It differs from other theological libraries with its diverse titles in the fields of biblical studies and protestant theology as well as due to the fact that it is open to the general public, which is not the case with other theological and church libraries in this region.
Since the Library is a department of the Biblical Institute, it operates and follows the Institute’s mission and vision:
Our users
Due to the specificity of the Library and the Croatian culture and society, the Library strives to create a picture of openness and safety for its users. Around 37% of our patrons are undergraduate students of theology, 35% are graduate students of theology, 21% public users and 7% are professors. Out of the total number, 56% are male and 44% female users.
Because of our high-quality resources, our users’ profiles are from several theological schools from Croatia, as well as Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia and Albania.
Library Collections
Our Library collection is divided into: General Collection, Reference Collection, Periodical Collection, Bible Collection, Thesis and Dissertation Collection and the Private Collections of three important protestant Bible translators in modern-day Croatia.
General Collection
Our General Collection counts more than 12,000 books in the field of religion, philosophy, psychology, languages and history. Out of the total number of copies, 83% is the General Collection. One part of this is from several important donations such as Cascade College (around 60%), Langham Literature, Joseph Shulam, Everet Ferguson, Thomas Sibley, Mladen Jovanović, Nela Horak Williams, Branko Lovrec and Branko Đaković. Other parts of the General Collection are shaped through buying. Our main priority when purchasing new books is to listen to the needs of our students and professors, and secondly to follow research of new relevant literature in the field of biblical studies, theology, church history, doctrines, mission etc.
Reference and Periodical Collection
The Reference and Periodical Collection can be found in the Reference room. It contains important dictionaries, encyclopedias, commentary collections and important theological works.
Physical periodicals are mostly in Croatian because we provide our users access to the leading database of theological scientific journals through ATLA RDB, and in the last 2 years, we have expanded to the database ATLA PLUS Serials. The Biblical Institute is the only library in Croatia and beyond that provides this access through ATLA RDB. This has given us the opportunity to reach students, professors and researchers from different religious backgrounds, countries and theological schools.
Bible Collection
Even though our Bible Collection is small, we are the only theological and church library that has created a collection, together with bibles from the Center for Biblical Research (CBI).