Address/Telephone Directories
from the Former Yugoslavia
at the Library of Congress

Table of Contents:   Introduction - All-Yugoslavia - Bosnia & Herzegovina -
Croatia - Kosovo - Macedonia - Serbia, Montenegro, Vojvodina - Slovenia

Introduction

Most of the foreign telephone directories held by the Library of Congress are uncataloged, hence we have compiled this list of the directories from the countries of former Yugoslavia as a finding aid for our staff and patrons. These directories deal with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Communist Yugoslavia, and all of the subsequent countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia. Some directories are for the former Autonomous Provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo. In addition to the uncataloged directories listed below, the Library also holds a handful that are cataloged and may be paged from the closed stacks using their call numbers. To locate these directories, search the online catalog using subject keywords such as "Yugoslavia" and "directories", or "Croatia" and "directories," or the name of a city plus "directories". Besides just straight telephone directories, this kind of search yields business/address directories for former Yugoslavia. The Library of Congress also has a 36-reel microfilm set of telephone directories entitled Telephone Directories from Former Yugoslavia, the contents of which are presented in the list below.

The finding aid, which represents our holdings as of August 2004, is arranged by country/republic or autonomous region, then by city, and then by the year prominently displayed on the cover of the piece, which may or may not be the actual date of publication (i.e., a directory will often have one year in large print on the cover, and a different, usually earlier, year of publication elsewhere). Directories that cover all of Yugoslavia appear first in the list. The type of directory is indicated by the words "residential", "organizational," or "both" for directories that include both business and private numbers.

Telephone directories for former Yugoslavia are located in four possible places in the Library of Congress: Deck 42 of the closed stacks in the Jefferson Building, Main Reading Room reference section (Alcove 4, Deck 46), the reference section of the European Reading Room, or for the microfilm set, in the Microform Reading Room. For items in the closed stacks or the Microform Reading Room a reader must request the items by completing a call slip; the other two locations are open to the public for browsing. The finding aid designates these four locations as Deck 42, Deck 46, EurRR, or Film. The call number of the microfilm set is 99/6071. All volumes held on Deck 42 are filed under Yugoslavia, not under the individual countries. The most current directories are held in the European Reading Room.

An explanation of the information found in the notes field of this guide is in order.

• All directories are in the Latin alphabet unless otherwise noted.
• In addition to an alphabetical arrangement by surname, business name, occupation or trade, many directories provide a numerical listing of entries arranged by phone number so it can be determined who held a particular number for a given year. This feature is indicated in the notes field with the words "Numerical index."
• Often in the notes field there will be a statement beginning with words such as "Sa stanjem" or "Po stanju" or "Polozba" followed by a date. This statement is taken either from the title page or title page verso and can be loosely translated as "the situation as of a given date". It merely offers more precise dating for the contents of the directory.

When looking for listings of smaller towns in former Yugoslavia, keep in mind that most telephone directories from the country feature a main city, but also include listings for other towns in the telephone district. Therefore, one should consult a map to locate a large city nearest to the desired town and use the directories for the larger city. Follow the link for a scanned map of telephone districts outlined in bold, which provides some guidance in determining which directories might be suitable for a particular town. This map was taken from Telefonski imenik SFRJ : Knjiga 6 : SR Srbija : Beograd. 1987-1988, p. 3. Regarding the microfilm set, a list of all localities covered on a reel appears at the very beginning of each reel.

Almost all of the directories from former Yugoslavia include both organizational and residential listings mixed together. Until the early 1970s very few provided a separate "yellow pages" section, although many had a section of additional advertisements at the end. Besides using printed telephone directories, a reader may find it helpful to use online directories available for free on the Internet. The telephone portal site Infobel http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/euro has a list of links for each European country including all of the countries that once were part of former Yugoslavia.

This finding aid was created and is maintained by Angela Cannon. For further information concerning telephone directories from former Yugoslavia held by the Library of Congress, please contact: