Eva Verona

Eva Verona (February 1, 1905 - May 19, 1996^[1]) was the most eminent Croatian librarian and information scientist and is well known among information scientists around the world.

She was born in Trieste (now Italy, then Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1905.^[1] She graduated in mathematics and physics from Zagreb University in 1928 and was immediately employed in the National and University Library in Zagreb.^[1] She worked in different departments of the Library as her career progressed.

She was also active in the library journal Vjesnik bibliotekara Hrvatske and in the Croatian Encyclopedia, for which she wrote numerous works about the history of Croatian libraries. She also took part in the Croatian Library Association.

Except for those activities, she focused her work in the Library on cataloguing, especially on how existing rules could be modified to better achieve their purposes. As a result of working on cataloguing rules, she wrote Cataloguing Code, published in 1970 and 1983.

The IFLA Committee on Cataloguing noted Verona's contribution in 1954 at its meeting in Zagreb. She become known and accepted by the International library community and in 1961 played an important part in the International Conference on Cataloguing Principles in Paris.^[1] She subsequently worked in several IFLA Working Groups, most notably participating in creating bibliographical standards and descriptions for numerous kinds of library materials.

She was the first European librarian to receive the American Library Association's Margaret Mann Citation in 1976.^[1]

From 1968 she was a professor at the University of Zagreb for students of librarianship.^[1]

Eva Verona will be remembered by generations of her students for her logic and consistent thought, exquisite politeness, and generosity in transmitting her ample knowledge. Since 1998, the Croatian Library Association presents the Eva Verona Award for "outstanding dedication to work, innovative practice and promotion of library profession".^[2]

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