The website began in late 1998 as the site for the Croatian Information Documentation Referral Agency, also known as HIDRA.
The front page included the address of the organization as well as the contact information, the current Director, and an email address for site visitors who had comments and questions about the site and its contents. HIDRA was located in Zagreb.
The Agency acted under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Croatia as the service provider for an online portal for central information and documentation for public domain.
Croatia Official Documentation
HIDRA was the official document provider and overseer of the use of documentation for the Government of the Republic of Croatia. They also oversaw the use of foreign country documents as well as international organizations and institutions. Anything related to Croatian state governmental bodies and institutions was verified by the Agency on its own accord.
HIDRA also developed the technological framework for the Croatian Government to secure a more transparent information infrastructure for the public that lived up to international information standards.
The HIDRA Legal Documents included on the site were:
- Decree on the Croatian Information Documentation Referral Agency
- Decree on Amendments to the Decree on the Croatian Information Documentation
- Decree on the Internal Organization and Functioning of the Croatian Information Documentation Referral Agency
HIDRA Croatian Documentation
There were many pages dedicated to information about HIDRA and information about government documents of Croatia.
The four main activities of the Agency were:
- Documentation and information acquisition
- Documenatation and data processing
- Documentation and data storage
- Information dissemination
An organizational chart for HIDRA directors and offices was provided on the site. The Departments of the Agency were: Official Documentation of Foreign Countries and International Organizations; Computer Technology Development; Database Development; and, Planning, Finance, Accounting, and General Administration.
You could find out information on publications published by HIDRA as well as a list of staff members and information on how to reach them.
A guide was also created by the Agency for the Republic of Croatia information portal. It included a thesaurus for standardized terminology of governments, a directory of Croatian government bodies, and a registry of state officials and senior civil servants. One could request daily updates on data.
Croatia Official Government Documentation
A bibliographical data portal also existed on the site to provide transparency and valuable information on the government of the Republic of Croatia.
They acquired this documentation based on the basic principles of:
- public availability of the official publication or document
- state body acting as a corporate author and/or publisher
- institution with public authority as a corporate author and/or publisher.
Documentation was available through publications like books and journals, audio-visual materials like video recordings and CDs, and electronic materials such as databases and network publications.
They also provided a list of political parties that were registered and active in Croatia including election information and links to the party websites.
There was also an archive feature for official documentation.
The website ended in mid-2014.
