HIT – HIT – Croatian Emigrant Press

Plavi razgovori (Blue talks)

In August 2025, an interview with Ivana Hebrang Grgić was recorded, and broadcast on September 28, on Croatian Radio – Radio Dubrovnik. The conversation was about activities on the Croatian Emigrant Press project and the digitization of audio recordings by Prof. Hans-Peter Stoffel as part of the Dalmatian Speeches in New Zealand project. The author of the show is Jelena Obradović Mojaš. The interview can be listened to on the Croatian Radio website, and is also stored in the Croatian Emigrant Press Repository.

Hans-Peter Stoffel Collection

From March to September 2025, audio recordings of old Dalmatian speeches in New Zealand, recorded on cassettes by Prof. Hans-Peter Stoffel in the 1970s, were digitized. A total of 50 recordings from 40 cassettes were processed and stored in the open access repository Croatian Emigrant Press in the virtual Hans-Peter Stoffel Collection. Metadata has been created, permissions for storage in open access have been collected, short descriptions have been created. Transcription, linguistic and cultural description are in progress. The recordings with full descriptions will be completed by the end of 2025 and available, in addition to this repository, on the website of the Institute of the Croatian Language and on the Kultura.hr portal. The digitization, processing and description are being carried out by Prof. Hans-Peter Stoffel, Dr. Sc. Ivana Kurtović Budja, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Ivana Hebrang Grgić and Assist. Prof. Dr. Sc. Jospi Lasić.

Dfest in Zagreb

At the 14th Festival of Croatian Digitization Projects (Dfest) on May 9, 2025, a presentation was held on the digitization of audio recordings recorded in New Zealand in the 1970s by researcher Hans-Peter Stoffel. This is a project that will be implemented during 2025. Access to the digitized material will be through the infrastructure used in the Croatian Emigrant Press project (Croatian Emigrant Press Repository). More about the project is available on the website H. P. Stoffel Collection. The presentation was given by Ivana Kurtović Budja from the Institute of Croatian Language and Ivana Hebrang Grgić from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. A summary of the presentation is in the Dfest programskoj booklet.

Lecture at Matica hrvatska

On April 8, 2025, Ivana Hebrang Grgić and Ana Barbarić gave a lecture entitled Tracing Croats in New Zealand: A Travelogue Research into Written Sources at Matica hrvatska. The lecture was organized by the Department for International Cooperation and the Diaspora.

The National and University Library in Zagreb Award

At the celebration of the National and University Library Day in Zagreb, held on February 21, 2025, Assoc. Prof. Ivana Hebrang Grgić received the National and University Library in Zagreb Award for her overall exceptional contribution to the development of library activities.

The Award for 2024 was awarded to her for her many years of encouraging development and innovation in the field of library activities, and in particular for the cooperation achieved under the Croatian Emigrant Press project, which has been running at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb since 2018.

About the project in Vijenac

In the newspaper Vijenac, no. 803/804 of December 19 2024, a report was published from the presentation of the project held at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb on the occasion of the creation of the 1000th record in the bibliography and the storage of the 100th object in the Croatian Emigrant Press Repository.

Croatian Emigrant Press at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science

On Monday, November 25, 2024, the institutional project Croatian Emigrant Press was presented at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. After the welcoming speech of the dean, Assoc. prof. Ph.D. Domagoje Tončinić, the project was presented by Assoc. prof. Ph.D. Ivana Hebrang Grgić, project manager, and prof. Ph.D. Ana Barbarić, collaborator on the project. Inter-institutional cooperation was explained by Assoc. prof. Ph.D. Nives Tomašević from Naklada Ljevak and Ph.D. Sofija Klarin Zadravec from the National and University Library in Zagreb.

The presentation was organized on the occasion of the creation of the 1000th record in the bibliographies and the depositing and archiving of the 100th object in the Croatian Emigrant Press repository. Out of 1000 records, 400 refer to books and newspapers that were not available in Croatian libraries before this research. Likewise, part of the digitized objects were not available or were difficult to access in Croatian and international institutions. Based on the research, two books and about 20 scholarly papers have been published so far. Presentations were held at numerous scientific conferences, of which five were invited presentations.

The presentation was attended by representatives of numerous institutions – the National and University Libraries in Zagreb, the Croatian Heritage Foundation, the Matrix Croatica, Central State office for Croats Abroad, the Institute for Migration Research, the Institute for the Croatian Language, etc.

Flyer

The Faculty website

The Faculty Facebook page

Croatian Library Association

The 49 th assembly of the Croatian Library Association was held in Opatija from November 13 to 16, 2024, with a conference section titled Libraries and Community: Innovation, Inclusivity, Diversity and Sustainability. Ivana Hebrang Grgić and Ana Barbarić held an invited presentation entitled Libraries and library services for Croats in the diaspora: libraries and library collections in Australia and New Zealand.

Migration processes between Croatia and South America

The 3rd international scientific conference Migration processes between Croatia and South America: Consolidation of transnational networks of action and participatory research was held from November 13 to 15, 2024, in person and online. On November 13, in Zagreb, Ana Barbarić held a presentation entitled Creating bibliographies of publications by Croatian emigrants as a contribution to the preservation of written heritage. Ivana Hebrang Grgić participated in the Spanish-language panel on November 14 by presenting the title Publications of Croats in South America: creating bibliographies and digitization.

Lecture at the Zagreb School of Business

On Monday, October 28, 2024 at the Zagreb School of Business a lecture was held on research into the publishing activities of Croats in New Zealand. The lecture was part of the Contemporary Literary Culture course taught by associate professor Ph.D. Nives Tomašević.