The need for a bibliography was first outlined to University of Michigan faculty, staff and students by Dr. Enes Kujundzic, Director of Bosnia's National and University Library, during his visit to the Ann Arbor campus in October 1994. Kujundzic described the efforts of librarians to reconstitute the rich collections of the Sarajevo library that were burned and nearly totally destroyed by Serbian nationalist forces then besieging the city, who bombarded the building with incendiary shells in August, 1992. Facing formidable obstacles in shipping and receiving replacements, Kujundzic emphasized that building a comprehensive retrospective bibliography was an essential first step in reconstituting the library's holdings. He particularly asked for assistance in compiling a bibliography of "Bosniaca" (on the model of "Judaica"), namely, books and journals published in or about Bosnia.
Bosniaca: A Bibliography of University of Michigan Library Holdings is a response to Kujundzic's appeal. It was produced by Janet Crayne, Associate Librarian, U-M Library Slavic Division, and Dr. Donna Parmelee, Program Associate at the U-M Center for Russian and East European Studies. The project employed several student assistants and was aided by an advisory committee of librarians and Southeast European area specialists.
"The Michigan Bosniaca bibliography is the first to be presented to the National and University Library," stated Dr. Kemal Bakarsic, Assistant Professor of Library Science at the University of Sarajevo, who is preparing a comprehensive, computer-based list of approximately 65,000 works published on the territory of Bosnia and Hercegovina in the modern era. "This bibliography is a model for establishing relations between the (Sarajevo) National and University Library and other libraries," he said.
Bakarsic hopes that other libraries around the world will provide similar lists derived from computerized searches developed at Michigan. "I would ask them to follow the same procedure, to follow the same queries that were used at Michigan," he said.
In addition to giving copies to Kujundzic and Bakarsic, Donia and Fine provided the bibliography to Professor Ibrahim Tepic, Dean of the University's Faculty of Philosophy, and to Dr. Boris Nilevic, Director of the Institute for History in Sarajevo. "The bibliography will assist faculty members and scholars in these institutions in meeting their immediate research needs," said Donia. He added, "We hope that other libraries and universities in North America and Europe will provide similar listings to aid Bosnian librarians in reconstituting one of the most important collections in the Balkans."
For further information on the Working Group on Southeast European Studies, founded in 1994 by the U-M Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) and International Institute to support scholarship on and in Southeast Europe, contact:
For information about the Michigan Bosniaca bibliography, contact:
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