Franjo Markovic Public Library is over 168 years old. It began in 1838 when the first reading room was established in the town. By t thend of the 18th century a few more reading rooms were established. It is one of the oldest libraries in Croatia.

In this century it has been a part of a Cultural Center, together with the Museum and the Open University, until 1998 when it became an independent institution, named after one of the most prominent Croatian writers and philosophers - Franjo Markovic.

The Library is situated in the center of the town, in Hrvatski dom (Croatian Home), a historical building which was built by the support of the Croatian Reading-room Association and its members. The place where it stands now used to be the old Reading room building.

Today Library has 8 employees - 7 of which are professional library staff.

The library is situated in the Croatian Home building comprising about 500 m 2 . During 1998 it was renewed and furnished with new equipment. It has been classified as 3rd type public library in Croatia.

The following communities as well as wider Križevci area are attracted to this library: Sv. Ivan Žabno, Sv. Petar Prehovec and Kalnik with 36 524 inhabitants.

The Town Library performs public library activities and is intended to all users regardless of their age, sex, profession, social or any other status. About 3 000 persons a year become members of the Library and over 60 000 books are borrowed annually.

All the departments in the Library are very well organized and the members are offered various services: book borrowing, newspapers and magazines reading room, reference books consulting, bibliography and summary compilation, native region collection, playroom for preschoolers, workshops for children and teenagers, computer workshops, multimedia, internet, inter-library loan, information service…

Besides the usual activities such as acquisition, processing, protection and books loan, the Library performs numerous culturally-oriented activities.

The Library and its staff are members of the Croatian Reading Society, Croatian Librarians Society, Croatian Children Books Center and take part in different promotive cultural activities with the aim to make reading and library use popular and to develop reading culture and literacy with children and adults alike.

The Library often organizes literary meetings, book promotions, lectures, exhibitions and other cultural events. A very rich program is particularly evident during the Croatian Book Month lasting from 15th October to 15th November each year.

The Library collection counts 60,000 books, 40 periodicals titles, about 2000 items of audio, video and CD-ROM materials and about 800 educational toys and teaching aids.

There is one special collection in the Library:

Crisiensia - collection of different materials on local history and publishing. The regional collection "Crisiensia" plays a particular role in the Library as very valuable old materials are included in it. It contains books, brochures, old postcards, catalogues, posters, periodicals, press clippings, musical supplies, video tapes etc. all giving a piece of picture to better understand the culture, history and economy of Križevci and the surrounding area in the past and present.

• TECHNICAL SERVICES
• COUNTY LIBRARY NETWORK SUPPORT SERVICE (since 1995)
• CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT - comprises reference collection and juvenile literature for children under 15.
• ADULT DEPARTMENT - is for young people above 15, and the rest of population . It comprises fiction and some popular non-fiction .
• REFERENCE DEPARTMENT - serves mostly students and researchers; comprises the main reference collection, textbooks and non-fiction. Special collections are accessible at Reference Department.

> Departments and services

Two small stand-alone branch libraries in 2 places in the town. (At Disabled Persons' Association and Alchoholic Anonimous Association in Križevci)

Library has been renovated for six years. The new library information system was implemented in 1999. It supports all the important library services. PC multimedia has been available in the Reference Department since 1995, and in the Children Department since 1997.

5 internet places and the internet corner are available for customers.

Special activities - exhibitions, lectures, poetry evenings and other cultural programs, story-time and workshops for children etc.

Budget - library is funded by the town authorities. It also gets financial support from the County Government, the Ministry of Culture, sponsors and its own financial sources.