The employees of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (NUBBH) officially announced on Monday that they have suspended work until further notice.

A press conference was held at the University of Sarajevo Campus where the employees confirmed that they are suspending the provision of services until further notice, as they had announced in the past months.

Aldin Huskic, president of the NUBBH Employees’ Council, pointed out that as employees of this institution, they want to tell the public that “they are not destroyers of national treasures, but their guardians.”

NUBBH will be closed to the public in the coming period until the issue of the appointment of the Board of Directors and the Director is resolved, and until a financial solution is found, and the employees will come to work regularly and continue to take care of the institution.

“The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not only the custodian of the national heritage, but also a key resource for education, research and the cultural history of our country. The unresolved status of the NUBBH not only jeopardizes its adequate funding but also creates serious difficulties in providing adequate personnel solutions,” Huskic said.

He invited all officials and institutions to help NUBBH.

He pointed out that starting today, August 26, the NUBBiH employees will stop providing services to the public until further notice.

“The reason for this decision is the lack of a concrete policy on the part of the authorities to solve our situation, which is why we no longer have the conditions for the functioning and work of the institution,” said Huskic.

The Sarajevo Canton Government has allocated 300,000 Bosnian marks (some €150,000) from the budget for NUBBH through the Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as 100,000 marks (some €100,000) through the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth, which Huskic called significant but still inadequate.

NUBBH employees have not received their salaries for the past five months.

For the past two months, NUBBiH employees have been desperately trying to attract the attention of both the authorities and the public and raise the alarm for the salvation of this institution, and the key problem, they say, is the lack of funds for the library’s operations, their salaries and for taking care of the book fund.

NUBBH is the national library of Bosnia and Herzegovina with headquarters in the capital, Sarajevo. It was founded as the National Library – the central national library, on October 31, 1945.