The Yugoslav Film Archive has a specialized professional library, the only one of its kind in the country, significant even by the world standards, and with an exceptional collection of film books along with the rich newspaper library with about a million and a half clippings about film and filmmakers, which has existed since 1949. Olga Dobrović was responsible for the establishment and organization of the Library, as its founder and first manager. The Library collection consists of over 23,000 monographs and publications, and represents an exceptional cultural asset, available not only to researchers and students (especially students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts), but also to the wider public. The Yugoslav Film Archive Library is indispensable for those who are dedicated to film studies and other ways of engaging in film art, but also for anyone who is simply curious and wants to know more about film.
History of the Library
An integral part of the Archive of the Yugoslav Film Archive is its professional and specialized Library in the field of film and television, the Yugoslav Film Archive Library. It was initially established by the Committee for Cinema of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia in 1949, and when the Committee was disbanded in 1953 the Library operated immediately as a vital part of the Yugoslav Film Archive, in premises at 19 Knez Mihailova Street, initially under the authority of the Secretariat for Education of the Republic of Serbia, and later the City of Belgrade and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.
It was immediately given multiple functions: practical and research, education, scientific and technical work, and also popularization, in addition to conventional library activity.
The Yugoslav Film Archive Library fulfilled its tasks so successfully that, as a kind of alternative academy of dramatic arts, it enabled the creation of an illustrious group of filmmakers (Pogačić, Đorđević, Radičević, Makavejev, Petrović, Pavlović, Žilnik, Godina, Šijan, Paskaljević, Marković, Karanović, Dragojević, Zečević, to name but a few), and also film journalists, film critics and theorists, university professors, historians and aestheticians of film and TV and other intellectuals, who on their part created Yugoslav and Serbian cinema and television and made it famous throughout the world.
The Yugoslav Film Archive served as the official editorial office of the country’s most influential film magazine, Film Today, which was published by the Yugoslav Film Archive in 1958—1959 and edited by Vladimir Pogačić (already a famous film director and the Yugoslav Film Archive Director), with texts written by the greatest authors of national cinema and culture in general: Makavejev, Petrović, Pavlović, Vučićević, Stojanović, Bogdanović, Aćimović, Stojanović, Glumac, Carina, Milošević and others.
The Library today
Today the Yugoslav Film Archive Library holds an exceptional collection of over 23,000 books about film and television, significant collections of film and TV magazines, and a rich newspaper library. The Library also holds the bequests of our esteemed filmmakers: Bequest of Dušan and Borka Stojanović, Bequest of Milan Vlajčić, Donations of Slavko Vorkapić, Vlada Petrić, Dejan Kosanović, Vladimir Pogačić, Vanda Krajinović, Nikola Majdak and Nikola Stojanović.
The fund represents an exceptional cultural and public good.
Until the early 21st century, the Library had on average 1,000 to 1,500 readers a year, while now it has about six hundred, an understandable difference due to development of the internet and contemporary ways of communication, digitization of film materials, etc. The Library responds to about 1,500 enquiries a year from the country and abroad via email and other means of electronic communication.
In 2017 the Library became a member of COBISS – the national cooperative library-information system of the National Library of Serbia.
The Yugoslav Film Archive Library is situated in 1 Uzun Mirkova St., and open to visitors and users, where the entire book fund is stored. It is specially tailored to the demands of a contemporary library and at its center there is a newly equipped reading room with twenty-four reading spots, free Wi-Fi and connection points for personal computers.
Development of the Video Library is underway, and it currently provides visitors with the opportunity to watch selected films from the Yugoslav Film Archive on several computers.
The Yugoslav Film Archive Library has a broad profile of users: film lovers, high school students, future and current students of art academies (with a special emphasis on film and TV), postgraduate students of the broadest range of subjects from this country and abroad, PhD students, national and foreign university professors in the field of all human sciences (sometimes also technical sciences), journalists, critics, screenwriters, directors, etc.
It is also worth noting that the Yugoslav Film Archive Library operates according to the principle of a public reading room, so it is not “reserved” only for a narrow circle of people who approach film art from an expert point of view, but it is available to everyone interested in film who wishes to learn more about the latest events in the world of cinema.
