Thematic collections

Marking the 110^th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Goran Kovačić, Croatia’s great poet, storywriter, essayist, translator, journalist and literary critic, the Ivan Goran Kovačić City Library in Karlovac and the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) – through the activities of the Croatian Web Archive (HAW), the Library’s European Documentation Centre (EDC NSK) and the NSK User Services Department – jointly organised HAWathon, a competition whose participants focused on gathering online content thematising Kovačić’s life and work and whose final result was the creation of this thematic collection.

The cooperation which enabled HAWathon was initiated by the Ivan Goran Kovačić City Library in Karlovac, which in 2023 is celebrating 60 years of bearing the name of this notable Croatian author. Supporting HAWathon as partners were Karlovac Grammar School (Gimnazija Karlovac), European Commission Representation in Croatia and Europe Direct Karlovac.

HAWathon was also organised to mark the European Year of Skills, aimed at educating the wider public with regard to digital skills and information literacy, for which citizen science initiatives relying on crowdsourcing are the ideal opportunities.

The collection includes websites, news sites’ posts, websites of public institutions and organisations named after Ivan Goran Kovačić, blog posts, as well as papers on his life and work available on Hrčak, the Portal of Croatian scientific and professional journals, and thus brings together in one place all content on this subject in the Croatian Web Archive for both researchers and the wider public.

The collection contains 81 collected URLs, totalling 249 GB of data.

Defending the title of the 2018 FIFA World Cup vice champion, Croatia’s national football team, headed by coach Zlatko Dalić, won third place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted by Qatar, from 20 November to 18 December 2022.

The team, nicknamed ‘The Blazers’ (Vatreni), entered the championship with a draw against Morocco. After beating Canada in its second group stage match, the team qualified for the knockout stage with a goalless draw against Belgium.

Winning against Japan in a round of 16 match and knocking out Brazil in the quarter-finals, the Croatian team reached its semi-final match, which it lost to Argentina. Beating Morocco in the third-place play-off, Croatia’s Blazers took the bronze.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 20 December 2022, resulting in 195 GB of collected data.

Human rights, the inalienable rights of all members of the human family, i.e. the economic, social, cultural and all other specific rights indispensable for human dignity and free personal development include equality before the law, legal protection against any discrimination, the right to freedom of thought and religion, right to education and to freedom of opinion, right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, right to peaceful assembly and association, right to freedom of movement, right to work and to free choice of employment, as well as the right to own property, to inherit, to seek asylum, etc.

Considering the great frequency of human rights-related public and online content, the collection offers a wide array of diverse and relevant resources on this topic. Collected as the result of the Archive’s cooperation with the Croatian Library Association’s Committee on Government Information and Official Publications, one of whose aims was to promote this type of content among librarians, the resources include websites and other content provided by government authorities, bodies of local government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and various human rights organisations, as well as content published on news sites, and are equally available to researchers, professionals and the wider public.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 22 November 2022, resulting in 135 collected URLs, totalling 253 GB of data.

On 27 July 2022, The Pelješac Bridge opened to traffic, enabling Croatia’s southernmost territory to be linked by road with the rest of Croatia. Namely, to reach Dubrovnik-Neretva County from other parts of Croatia it was formerly necessary to pass through the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Neum corridor) which considerably influenced the county’s economy, tourist industry and the accompanying socio-economic indicators.

The 2.4-kilometre Bridge runs along the Mali Ston Bay and together with the construction of the Motorway A1 Zagreb-Split its construction was the largest infrastructure project in the three decades since Croatia gained its independence and a major project funded by the European Union.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 28 July 2022, resulting in 75 collected URLs, totalling 340 GB of data.

The collection was created through the Archive’s cooperation with the Ivanić-Grad City Library, subject specialists of the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) and the Ivan Švear Secondary School in Ivanić-Grad as part of Citizen-Enhanced Open Science in Southeastern Europe Higher Education Knowledge Hubs, or CeOS_SE Project, a research project aimed at including European citizens in pan-European efforts focusing on open science. As a result of this successful cooperation, the collection makes available numerous resources on these as small as important inhabitants of our planet.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, mounting missile attacks on a large part of Ukrainian territory, including its capital, Kyiv. Responding to the Russian aggression, the European Union, United States and other countries soon started providing Ukraine with economic and military assistance, at the same time imposing harsh sanctions against Russia. A great many civilians were killed in brutal Russian attacks and several million people left their homes in Ukraine fleeing the aggression.

In order to collect as wide a range of online resources on this topic as possible, the Archive invited the wider public to take part in gathering relevant content. Considering the continuing Russian aggression, new content is still being collected and will soon be added to the collection.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 22 April 2022, resulting in 162 collected URLs, totalling 86 GB of data.

Responding to the recent raising of public awareness of climate change and of the need to urgently act in order to alleviate its impact, marking World Meteorological Day and fulfilling its task with regard to the role libraries must take in promoting resources on this pressing issue, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) and the Croatian Web Archive, the Library’s User Services Department, Official Publications Collection and NSK European Documentation Centre jointly prepared this collection.

The collection includes carefully selected varied online content, ranging from websites, through weather portals and resources related to ongoing climate change-related projects and programmes, to publications issued by bodies of central and local government and international organisations such as proposals, drafts and programmes focusing on environmental protection in relation to climate change, in which context UN Agenda 2030 and its 17 sustainable development goals, especially Goal 13, particularly stand out.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 18 March 2022, resulting in 133 collected URLs, totalling 99 GB of data.

In November 2021, Croatia marked the 30th anniversary of the suffering of Vukovar in the 1991-1995 Croatian Homeland War. The National and University Library in Zagreb joined this commemoration by archiving selected online content related to this anniversary, along with content presenting the life of this heroic city today.

Webpages, news sites and other online content included in the collection were harvested in a crawl performed on 29 October 2021 as part of preparations for an exhibition spotlighting Vukovar’s tragedy as well as its centuries-long cultural heritage (Sloboda se njegovim imenom zove), whose programme also included the presentation of two online exhibitions, one presenting Vukovar-related cultural heritage (Vukovar) and the other Vukovar’s contemporary culture (Kultura u Vukovaru danas).

The collection includes 60 URLs, totalling 69 GB of data.

On 29 December 2020 at 12.19 PM an earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale with the epicentre at 3 kilometres southwest of the city of Petrinja severely hit Croatia?s Sisak-Moslavina County, resulting in human casualties and extensive material damage in Sisak, Petrinja, Glina and other cities, towns and villages in the county.

The earthquake was one of the two strongest recorded earthquakes in the Republic of Croatia since the beginning of the 20th century and apart from all across Croatia it was also felt in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed between 4 and 6 February 2021, resulting in 452 collected URLs, totalling 144 GB of data.

From 1 January to 30 June 2020, Croatia presided over the Council of the European Union for the first time since its accession to the European Union in 2013. Croatia?s first term in this capacity, for which the presiding offices were located at the National and University Library in Zagreb, was marked by the unfavourable conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The websites and news sites included in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed between 16 to 23 November 2020, resulting in 89 collected URLs, totalling 115 GB of data.

On 22 March 2020 at 6.24 AM an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, with the epicentre at 7 kilometres north of the city’s centre.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed between 15 and 20 April 2020, resulting in 195 collected URLs, totalling 231 GB of data.

The 2019/20 Croatian presidential election was the seventh election for the President of the Republic of Croatia. The election was announced based on the decision of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and held on 22 December 2019. Owing to none of the candidates obtaining a 50% majority of the votes, the election was repeated on 5 January 2020.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 14 January 2020, resulting in 386 collected URLs, totalling 34 GB of data.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was hosted by Russia, from 14 June to 15 July. The Croatian national football team, nicknamed ‘The Blazers’ (Vatreni), took part in the tournament headed by coach Zlatko Dalić. For the first time in its football history, the Croatian team made the finals of the World Cup and took second place. On its way to the medal, it beat Nigeria, Argentina, Iceland, Denmark, Russia and England, and lost in the final to France.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed between 27 and 29 August 2018, resulting in 168 GB of data.

From 14 to 16 May 2014, large parts of eastern Croatia were struck by severe floods, inundating the Sava River Basin at the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia all the way through Serbia up to the mouth of the Danube River in Belgrade, Serbia?s capital. The parts of Croatia that were worst hit were those around Županja and Slavonski Brod. Several thousand inhabitants had to be evacuated from the flooded region, which the Government of the Republic of Croatia proclaimed the disaster area.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 16 and 17 January 2016, resulting in 104 collected URLs.

The Republic of Croatia joined the European Union as its 28th member state on 1 July 2013.

The collection includes all publicly available Croatia?s EU accession-related online content, as well as news sites, the web portals of Croatian cities? administration and the accession-related local news media content.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 16 and 17 July 2013, resulting in 116 collected URLs, totalling 32 GB of data.

The collection includes all publicly available content on the national referendum on the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union, held on 22 January 2012, as well as online features published on various domains and web pages related to this important event.

Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 16 October 2012, resulting in 476 collected URLs, totalling 929 MB of data.