PRESIDENT TUDJMAN OPENS NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

ZAGREB, May 28 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman today opened the new National and University Library (NSB) building, ahead of Croatian Statehood Day. "We are overjoyed to present the Republic of Croatia with this new building which houses the entire Croatian heritage of the written word," NSB director Ivan Mihel said. "Here is where history and state-of-the art technologies meet," Science and Technology Minister Branko Jeren said, adding that the "world will be dazzled by this monumental building." Culture Minister Zlatko Vitez stressed that the library had been built by the entire Croatian people - both in the homeland and the diaspora. After symbolically opening the new building with a computer card, President Tudjman visited the social, humanistic and science libraries on the third and fourth floor. Mihel acquainted President Tudjman with a new method of searching the NSB computer database and presented him a CD containing the files: "Croatica," "Croatian Publishing," "Croatian Design" and the Table of Baska (the first document written in the Croatian language). In a brief statement to reporters, President Tudjman described the building as "magnificent." "With it, the Croatian culture and science have been given space to develop in the next century and millenium, as well as the opportunity to bring the Croatian history, art, culture and science closer to Croatians and the world," President Tudjman said. "Because we did not have our own government and our own state, all that which the Croatian people has created over the centuries has remained hidden and unknown even to Croatian people and their children, let alone the world," Tudjman said. "Today, we are revealing Croatia to the world," he said. The opening was attended by Croatian Government and Parliament representatives, Chancellor of the Zagreb University Marijan Sunjic, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of religious communities, and many distinguished public figures. (hina) as 281805 MET may 95