As part of the exhibition Acquisitions 2010-2014, and in addition to the collections and secondary documentation holdings, the library of the City Museum of Rijeka is presented for the first time. The library was founded in 1976 and holds approximately 4,000 titles. The book fund is replenished by purchasing and mostly by exchanging professional catalogs with similar museum institutions in the country and abroad, in addition to a number of books acquired through donations or legacies.
Most of the collection consists of monographic publications, professional and scientific journals, periodicals, own editions and other publications. Thematically, the library fund of the Museum of the People’s Revolution primarily covered the period of the workers’ movement and the Second World War in the local area and beyond, as well as socialist construction. By renaming and changing its activities since April 1994, the Museum library is focused on the acquisition of literature in the field of general national history, culture, art history and artefacts, and especially works related to the history of Rijeka and its surroundings.
The oldest and very rare copy of the library is certainly a book on the history of the Trsat sanctuary by the Trsat guardian Petar Francetić, TersaCtVM Coronata DeIpara VIrgIne InsIgne sive Triumphus gloriosissimus B.Mariae Virginis, Matris gratiarum, Venice, edition – 1718. With this valuable edition, it is worth mentioning a Lectionary – a part of the Bible translated into Croatian according to the Missal of Rome, which was printed in Croatian in 1824 in the printing house of Anton and Josip Karletzki in Rijeka.
Of the periodicals, magazines and newspapers, the publication Fiume published by the Società di Studi Fiumani in Fiume, donated to the Museum in 2000 by the University Library of Rijeka (22 issues from 1923 to 1938), should be highlighted. There are also monthly poetry and prose magazines for literature and art La Fiumanella, Delta and Termini, which were donated this year by the Società di Studi Fiumani in Rome, and many other titles such as the Almanac of the City of Sušak, Rijeka Review, Domet, Sušak Review and others. Of the newspapers, the library’s holdings include the bound issues of Riječki list from 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1952, and the bound Novi list from 1962 to 2000.