Another odd day of research.

Just so every one is clear, the picture has nothing to do with the post, well, except that it is a picture of a mythical beast (the Hapsburg double headed eagle). The crest is the Triune Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia. I just thought it was a neat picture.

Well, today I finally confronted the beast. That is to say, I finally waded into the Ustase thinking. I happened in a round about way. I finally pretty much caught up and finished working in the current set of archived newspapers and it will take them until after noon tomorrow to get the next set out of storage. So, around noon time I was headed back to my place to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of the day when I decided to stop at one of the old book stores on the way home. While I looking around I discovered they had a copy of the 1942 "Geography of Croatia." I've seen this in a couple of other old book stores, but usually it is on display under lock and key, so you can't just thumb through it. This one was just one the shelf, so I started looking though it. It turns out that it completely supports my idea that the Ustase were trying to destroy the idea of Zagreb as the center of the Croatian National Project.

Now, there are only about 10 pages of this two volume book that really relate to my research, so I didn't want to buy it. I figured that I could probably check a copy out of one of the libraries and copy the pages. So, I headed over to a local branch of the library and looked it up in their on line catalog. It turns out that you can't actually check this book out. There are only 4 copies of the 2 volume set in the whole library system, and they are all only available to use in a reading room. Well, the library where I work with the newspapers (mostly) had a copy machine in the reading room, so I figured I would see if I could get copies made there. So, I went there and asked if they had the book.

There must be some code in the numbering system they use here for cataloging books that identifies them as Ustase, because as soon as I gave the woman working the desk the request number she started looking worried. Then she asked who told me they actually had a copy there. Then, they had to go find it, since the code said it was in the reading room, but actually, it was kept in a separate, non-public area. Once they finally found it I asked if I could make copies of a few pages, and it tuned out that I could, but you could just see the look in the librarian's eyes while she was doing it. It was as if the book was toxic, which in a way I can understand because I've been putting off dealing with this stuff myself for kind of the same reason. Once I read it, I realised that what I found actually supports my idea that the Ustase movement was very much anti-Croatian, at least in the classic (19th and early 20th century) idea of Croatia. But it is clear that part of the reason people don't know that is that the ideas, and the books themselves have become "unreadable."

Update: After reading though yesterday's post again, I got the feeling that you might think the staff at the City Archive weren't as helpful as they could have been. That's not true at all. They were very helpful and one of them spent a good 10 minutes explaining how the particular catalog I needed to use was organized and even tried to find the specific item I wanted himself, but after 10 minutes, he just couldn't give me any more time. There are only three people who work there in the reading room, and they had about 15 people using or requesting items while I was there.