What is the dLib.si portal?

The Digital Library of Slovenia - dLib.si provides access to a wide range of digital contents in 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.

Who is involved in the development of the portal?

The National and University Library (NUL) contributes the majority of the material and takes care of development and maintenance of the portal. Many Slovenian libraries and other institutions involved in preservation of the cultural heritage contribute their digitized materials while borne-digital contents are contributed mostly by publishers, authors and the Slovenian Research Agency. 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.

What does the dLib.si portal provide?

The dLib.si portal contains digitized and born-digital materials. To comply with the copyright law, digitized material is mostly older (dating before 1945). It covers a large number of books, newspapers and periodicals, photographs, manuscripts, music scores and other cultural treasures kept by Slovenian libraries. Born-digital material comprises a significant number of modern slovenian scientific journals, as well as other periodicals. Modern electronic books by Slovenian publishers represent an increasing segment of materials as well.

Who is it for?

DLib.si is intended for all inhabitants of the Republic of Slovenia as well as people living beyond its borders. It is a crucial tool in the educational and scientific research work, and lifelong learning. The contents of the portal can be used for study, research, teaching, demonstration activities, art, entertainment.

The Digital Library of Slovenia Strategic Policy
(from: The National and University Library Strategic Plan for the period 2014 -2019, Ljubljana, 2014):

• Building, development and management of digital collections, following user needs, existing legislation and standards, in co-operation with various strategic partners from the fields of culture, science, education and economy,
• providing a single web access to Slovenian e-cultural and scientific contents,
• ensuring digitization or harvesting of born-digital material and its accessibility,
• systematically capturing and archiving of slovenian web contents and development of the slovenian web arhive,
• providing conditions for preservation of Slovenian cultural and scientific heritage in digital form,
• further development and extension of the National Aggregator for Cultural e-Content functionalities,
• providing free and open access to digital contents and development of tools to enable their use and exchange in Slovenia and outside its borders,
• promotion of digital library as an infrastructure of the educational and scientific research process, lifelong learning and as factor of democratization of society,
• engagement of related organizations - public institutions in the field of culture, science and education, and users - in the process of developing models for capturing, preservation and access to cultural and scientific heritage in digital form,
• building, developing and managing of electronic library services, and providing conditions for their accessibility to all target groups of users.

The beginnings of digitization at the National Library and University Library date back to 1996. From 1996 to 2003, the Library carried out several digitisation projects (the Portrait Collection of Famous Slovenians, the Kopitar's Collection of Slavic Medieval Codices, Retrospective Conversion of Catalogues for the period 1774 - 1947, etc.). They were available on separate web portals.

In 2003, the concept of digital libraries was defined on the basis of modern library and information science, and the most important factors to influence the future development of the European academic libraries were defined. The development of the efficient digital library was featured among the priorities of the National and University Library Strategic Plan (2004-2008). Based on these principles, the dLib.si portal was established and presented to the public in November 2005.

From 2006 to 2008, several large-scale digitizing projects of NUL’s old materials were carried out. Digitized material from other libraries started to be included on the portal dLib.si. The EOD service – eBooks on Demand - was fully implemented, enabling users to order digitized copies of older books from collections of the National and University Library. In cooperation with external partners (publishers), the Library has created a digital collection of the Slovenian scientific journals, established a system for obtaining legal deposit of online publications and develped the SVAROG portal enabling publishers to deposit their publications.

The period was marked by active participation in shaping of The European Library and the Europeana, and by cooperation in the creation of the Ljubljana University Digital Library. NUL also participated in several research and development projects in the field of digital preservation and the development of digital libraries. The most important project "The Digital Library of Slovenia - dLib.si” was adopted in 2007. It was financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanisms. Due to several improvements and new functionalities thar were implemented, the dLib.si website earned the bronze medal NETKO in 2007. Due to extensive promotional activities, visits to the dLib.si portal increased considerably, the Digital Library of Slovenia has become a highly recognised service. The dLib.siPlus project taking place in 2009 and 2010, was financed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the European Development Funds.New functionalities of the dLib.si portal adapted to the needs of partner organizations and different profiles of users were developed during the project. Search options for finding resources with thematic browser, by collections and geopositioning were improved. During this period, the National Aggregator for Cultural e-Content was created. It enables different Slovenian cultural heritage institutions to transmit metadata of their digital resources to Europeana – the portal of the European digital libraries.