Digital Collection of 78 rpm Gramophone National Library of Serbia
The National Library of Serbia preserves precious sound treasure on 78 rpm gramophone records in its Special Collections. There are around 599 records, and the oldest ones date from the beginning of the past century (1901-1902), and the earliest ones are from the sixth decade of the 20th Century.
Collections genre designation covers from folk and popular to classical and jazz music, along with a few speech recordings (comedy, poetry, language courses). It is worth mentioning that records appear in three dimensions – 17.5, 25 and 30 cm.
This collection has an important national heritage value, as far as Serbian records are concerned, for it contains many earliest Serbian sound recordings made in Serbia or abroad. On these, old, dusty shellac disks have been recorded not only divine voices of most famous singers and performers, or unique musical works, but also messages from Serbian ancestors, musical gems recorded for us to listen to, keep, and treasure, and to understand and remember them.