摘要：The paper presents the results of a study which examined the role of Croatian public libraries in the contemporary multicultural society. The main goal of the study was to find out how Croatian public libraries respond to challenges of their multicultural communities, particularly with the ethnic and national minorities. The data were gathered using the quantitative methodology (online questionnaire) in the second half of 2011. The results partially confirmed one of the authors’ hypotheses: the respondents (Croatian public libraries’ directors) are generally aware of the important role that a public library has in the modern multicultural society. However, it was also established that public libraries in Croatia, at the moment, do not provide (or promote) multicultural services as actively as expected. This is the first such study conducted in Croatia and its results, and resulting guidelines, can help public libraries in developing multicultural library collections and services, but also encourage them to collaborate more actively with all relevant institutions in their communities and wider, in order to provide better services for their users.
关键词：multiculturalism; public libraries; ethnic and national minorities; library collections; library services; Croatia
