Materials from and about Croatia appear throughout the collections and divisions of the Library of Congress, including in the many special format and subject collections. In this guide we attempt to give a brief overview of the kinds of materials related to Croatia found in these special collections. All inquiries about special collections materials should be directed to the specific reading rooms referenced on each page of the guide, because this guide is not comprehensive.

Although the Library of Congress Online Catalog is the first place to look for special collections materials, additional materials can be found with the assistance of reference staff in the reading rooms. For example, the Geography and Maps Reading Room, has many individually cataloged maps, but also approximately 160 maps for Croatia cataloged at the collection level and others filed under the topics of Yugoslavia or Austro-Hungary. The Prints and Photographs Reading Room holds a number of historical collections which, similar to the map situation, may contain Croatian content, but are represented with broader level records, rather than specific entries for Croatia.

Some special collections reading rooms need to be consulted not because their materials have indirect bibliographic access, but rather because their materials can be served to researchers only in their reading rooms, such as Croatian and Yugoslav films in the Moving Image Resource Center or music recordings in the Recorded Sound Research Center or the American Folklife Center.

Also included in the section for special collections is a description of various Croatian materials in the custody of the European Reading Room, either in its reference collection for Croatia or as part of its special collections.