About BIT

A library (BIT) is part of the Institute for Tourism. Via an intra-library cooperation system, the library is accessible to external users. The BIT’s main mission is to systematically build internationally relevant bibliographical databases containing the most important international and local sources of scientific and professional literature and tourism-related information.

The unique bibliographic database contains over 25,000 bibliographic units, of which more than 14,000 are articles that have been published in prominent magazines.

Contact

Institute for Tourism Library
Head: Ksenija Tokić
Vrhovec 5
10000 ZAGREB
working hours:
Mon-Fri. 8:00-16:00
Tel.: +385 1 39 09 648
Fax: +385 1 39 09 667
e-mail: biblioteka@iztzg.hr

• General information about BIT
• Activities and services
• Users
• BIT House Rules

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT BIT

BIT Library is part of the Institute for Tourism. BIT is a specialized library partly open to the general public. BIT’s main mission is to handle library holdings as well as scientific and professional information which meets the current and future needs of its users, and also to provide support for publishing and professional activities. BIT follows, collects, processes, maintains and protects holdings related to tourism, as well as disseminates and exchanges information. Driven by the development of science, new information technologies and the information market, BIT has developed into an active information center which should meet specialized information needs. One segment of BIT’s activities is directly used by the Institute for Tourism, and the other segment includes BIT’s direct involvement in the information sciences related to the research of the multidisciplinary phenomenon of tourism.

BIT cooperates or establishes links with other libraries and institutions in Croatia and abroad to improve its own activities, to exchange experiences and to seek assistance in its work, intralibrary lending, exchange of library holdings, planning of network systems, staff education, etc.

The BIT library holdings have been collected, defined and built over a number of years in accordance with the principal activities of its founding institution – Institute for Tourism. Its main task is to provide support for the research and development of tourism, bearing in mind its multidisciplinary nature. BIT’s purchasing policies are based on the estimate of the current and future requirements of its users and permanent following of all types of information sources of significance for tourism, in accordance with the financial and other capabilities of the Institute for Tourism. As a scientific and research institution, the Institute for Tourism creates new knowledge and the necessary information is most commonly found in periodical publications (scientific magazines, proceedings from various meetings and statistical publications). The institute’s task is to ensure continuity in their arrival. The BIT library holdings have been built through the compulsory keeping of all the studies and grey literature produced by the Institute for Tourism, as well as through the procurement (by purchasing, exchanging or receiving gifts) of publications and grey literature of other publishers and institutions. A special emphasis has been placed on the procurement of holdings available on new technologies (CD-ROM, electronic magazines, and rights to use international databases).

BIT ACTIVITIES AND SERVICES

Library activity comprises:

• Obtaining materials (following information sources on the most recent materials, monitoring the development of tourism in the country and abroad, keeping up with the requirements of users, selection of materials, updating the desiderata files, ordering materials).
• Processing of materials (inventory, classification, catalogization, technical processing of material)
• Housing and protection of materials (providing free access to material, cleaning shelves and materials, controlling the quality of the binding, organizing the binding of the more important annual editions of particular magazines)
• Review of the book holdings (regular inventory according to the groups of book holdings, the write-off of doublets)

Documentation activity within BIT is twofold:

• The employees of the Institute have an obligation towards the Documentation service which directly reflects on the library holdings to register, process and store the products of the Institute for Tourism such as studies and other works authored by IT associates.
• Documentation activity also implies detailed processing of documents, more precisely, the analytical processing of magazines and proceedings, which is precisely what distinguishes BIT from other similar libraries, not only in Croatia.

Information and referral activity comprises:

• active cooperation with the associates of the Institute for Tourism and outside users, (information about BIT, organization of the work of users in the BIT, search and help in finding information, retrospective searches, selective dissemination of information) drafting bibliographies of all the works authored by various IT associates
• drafting the bibliography of articles which are published in the magazine TURIZAM
• preparing the bulletin of new arrivals and current contents
• updating information on BIT for the IT web pages
• education of users on how to do computer searches
• drafting periodical reports on the work of the BIT
• intralibrary cooperation.

Reprographic services comprise:

• copying parts of documents for users
• copying contents of publications for current contents
• making the necessary number of compulsory samples (copying the originals of studies and other works by IT associates and the binding of those works)

Participation in the publishing activities of the Institute for Tourism implies:

• harmonization of the quoted literature within the studies of the Institute for Tourism and articles in the magazine TURIZAM.
• Harmonizing the data in the imprint, on the title and preliminary pages of the studies of the Institute for Tourism
• For the new editions of the Institute for Tourism: ensuring the CIP and information necessary to obtain ISBN and ISSN
• Updating the list of unsold publications of the Institute for Tourism (in collaboration with Accounting)

The research and scientific activities imply work on long-term projects to build a specialized central portal for tourism and a tourism thesaurus adapted to new technologies.

BIT USERS

The users of the BIT holdings and services are associates of the Institute for Tourism and, on occasion, outside users from professional, scientific and educational institutions. BIT is not a lending library, and the use of the BIT library holdings is regulated by the House Rules of the BIT.

BIT HOUSE RULES

• The working hours of BIT are from Monday to Friday between 8 AM and 4 PM. BIT is open to the associates of the Institute for Tourism during working hours. Outside users are expected to make a written appointment to use BIT. Outside users are required to present a personal identification card, a student’s book or another form of identification.
• BIT has two seats for readers, but no reading room as such. Occasionally, upon prior arrangement, outside users can use a meeting room or some other available space on the institute’s premises in lieu of a reading room.
• Possibilities to use BIT:
  • Most of the BIT holdings are freely accessible to users. There are instructions in place on how to locate the materials on the shelves. The collection of IT studies, the collection of electronic media and the protected part of the holdings are accessible to external users upon previously approved request (requests are approved by the Library Committee or the Head of the Institute for Tourism).
  • Information on a significant part of the holdings is accessible in the bibliographic database and available on the web pages of the Institute for Tourism, which may also be searched independently.
  • The BIT has on disposal a personal computer with Internet access, CD reader and writer.
  • Photocopying is possible in agreement with the librarian.
• Lending of library holdings:
  • Associates of the Institute for Tourism may take materials outside the BIT and use them in other rooms of the Institute for Tourism, and this must be recorded in the book that is at the librarian’s desk.
  • Outside users may only use the materials inside the BIT. Withdrawing (borrowing) materials is only allowed with special permission and requires personal identification to be used as a deposit.
• Rules of user behavior in the BIT:
  • The area behind the counter (except for the side room) is reserved for the processing of materials and the head of the BIT, not for users.
  • Materials may be taken from the shelves, but DO NOT RETURN THEM TO THE “SAME PLACE”. Return them to the places marked with yellow or to the user’s tables, as arranged with the librarian.