Libraries
Society expects individuals to be empowered and capable of realising their potentials in everyday life. As an important part of social infrastructure, libraries also face the challenge of how to operate in order to generate social benefits and make a positive impact on an individual and society in the context of the public service they carry out. By adapting their services and the user environment to the needs of modern society, they have become an open space for the awakening of potentials – potentials for empowering both individuals and society as a whole.
With a view to ensuring unrestricted access to the library materials and information and driven to follow the criteria of the modern computerised society, library activity gradually evolved into a system that harmonised professional standards and linked all kinds of libraries. The entire network is supported by the COBISS coordinated and reciprocal bibliographic system. The implementation of the basic public mission of libraries falls within the remit of the state and municipalities; this task has been entrusted to the central national library, i.e. the National and University Library, which, among other things, is also responsible for the portal dLib.si.
The Digital Library of Slovenia
The Digital Library of Slovenia (dLib.si) provides access to a wide range of digital contents in the fields of science, art and culture. As an online source of information, it constitutes an essential component of the modern educational and scientific research process and is one of the cornerstones of the information society development. Moreover, it ensures preservation of the Slovenian written cultural heritage in digital form, thus digital contents of the past and present will be accessible to future generations. The portal thereby connects a wide range of cultural, scientific and educational institutions that create digital contents. The Digital Library of Slovenia is an active partner in the development of Europeana, Europe’s digital library portal.