Cataloguing and Bibliographic work 

The Department for Cataloguing and Bibliographic Work deals with the cataloguing of various bibliographic sources in conventional and electronic form – monographs, serials, and non-book materials, which make up the basic collection, the Local Collection, special collections, and donated libraries. In addition, for the current national bibliography and other special bibliographies, components of the selected monographs and serials are analytically catalogued, primarily from Godišnjak Biblioteke Matice srpske (Matica Srpska Library Yearbook) and the Matica Srpska editions (Letopis Matice srpske (Matica Srpska Chronicle) and scientific journals).

Experts of the Department participate in the building and editing of the electronic catalogue and normative files, the selection and preparation of materials for digitization and presentation in digital collections, staff education on cataloguing and bibliographic practice, as well as in the preparation and editing of professional and scientific publications. Thanks to the development of information technologies and the application of international standards in the description of bibliographic sources, the Matica Srpska Library has transformed into a modern service available to the wider social community.

As a depository library, the Matica Srpska Library receives legal deposit copies. It catalogues them within the shared cataloguing system, prepares a current bibliography of books for the territory of the Province of Vojvodina (since 1981), as well as CIP records for publications published in the territory of the Province.

Electronic catalogue

The Matica Srpska Library successfully connects its rich tradition with the demands and needs of the modern information age. The following operations are completely automated: receipt, accessioning, acquisition and exchange of publications, cataloguing of old and rare books and legacies, CIP records prior to printing, current and retrospective cataloguing of publications, bibliographic cataloguing, analytical cataloguing of periodicals, user registration, reservation and ordering of materials, and searching the electronic catalogue. 

The automation of bibliographic work has been ongoing since 1989. By re-establishing the shared cataloguing system in 2003, the electronic catalogue of the Library has the largest share – 738,137 records or 55% of the total number. Twenty years later, at the beginning of November 2023, in the Library’s electronic catalogue, the largest of its kind in the country, there were a total of 1,659,939 records (for books, periodical titles, contributions to monographic and serial publications, and non-book materials). Up to a hundred parameters can be used when searching the electronic catalogue.  

During 2019, together with other member libraries of the COBISS.SR system, the Library switched to name authority control cataloguing, which created the conditions for the establishment of a uniform union catalogue and the development of object-relational cataloguing.

Non-book materials

The Collection of Non-Book Materials in the Matica Srpska Library represents one of the most interesting collections in terms of content diversity, informativeness, and appearance.

The Cartographic and Geographic Collection comprises geographic maps, city maps, postcards, albums of postcards, atlases, and tourist guides. This Collection contains works of special value and cultural and historical significance. The most valuable pieces in the Collection are the manuscript plans and maps of Novi Sad and Petrovaradin from 1697 to 1745, then maps and plans made by Zaharijа Orfelin, the map of Serbia and Serbian territories from 1805 in the legacy of Sava Tekelija, and others.

The Music Collection contains printed music scores, manuscripts, and music recorded on audio cassettes, gramophone records, video cassettes, and optical discs. The Collection consists of works of domestic and foreign composers printed in the country and abroad. Printed music scores published by Novi Sad and Belgrade music publishing houses in the interwar period, as well as five music scores by Tihomir Ostojić, are publications of a special national value. Video recordings on cassettes and optical discs are also stored within this Collection. 

The Graphic Art Collection contains exhibition catalogues, works of fine art, ex libris, photographs, and posters. These diverse publications provide valuable information about domestic and foreign artists and events related to cultural life. 

The Collection of Small and Documentation Materials contains a variety of library materials, which bear witness to cultural and historical events and everyday life in a special way (prospects, advertisements, advertising catalogues, leaflets, comics and roto novels, directories, address books, public transport timetables, price lists, invitation cards, programmes, postcards, funeral posters, etc.). These materials are specific, so for the purpose of their rational preservation and use, the individual units are usually organized into thematic units, i.e. artificially formed collections and the collection-level cataloguing is applied.

These publications are used in the Non-Book Materials Reading Room.

Local studies collection

The Local Studies Collection of the Matica Srpska Library, established in 1954, is the first of its kind in the Province of Vojvodina. This specific archive collection comprises serial and monographic publications published and printed in the territory of Vojvodina, all Serbian books and magazines published before 1919, as well as publications printed in Vojvodina until 1945 or have Vojvodina and its people as their subject.  Historical conditions and the multicultural tradition imposed the principle that the Local Studies Collection collects and preserves the publications of all its peoples, as well as those writers who were not born in Vojvodina but worked in this area as literary and scientific workers and publicists. 

In the Local Studies Collection, as separate entities, are kept all publications of the Matica Srpska, Matica Srpska Library, Gallery of Matica Srpska, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Srpska književna zadruga publishing house. The Collection also includes publications from all the science academies of the former Yugoslavia published until the 1990s.