Background: During the last ten years, there has been a dysplosis in the development of digital libraries, which have taken precedence over classical libraries. Objective: With this article, we want to make a kind of comparison of classic and digital libraries, with a description of the pros and cons of both, so we can easily see their advantages and disadvantages. Methods: Authors used as source published papers deposited in indexed databases like PMC, MEDLINE, HINARI, etc. regardsing to appropriate facts about classic and digital libraries in Bosnia and Herzegovina and wordwide. Results and Discussion: Libraries, even a scientific one, must have professionally trained staff and an appropriate technological infrastructure, the main component of which is the Library Information System (BIS). It is a phrase that refers to an integrated library system, which consists of online databases, digital libraries, electronic books, magazines and various multimedia formats on which information sources are stored (hard disks, CDs, USB sticks, DVDs, etc.). In the past, libraries tended to develop means or instruments that would enable access to documentary resources on the spot, i.e. in the library itself - through the catalog. Later, a lot of effort was invested in the development of an automatic version of these local tools - by creating an online catalog for accessing data about library resources from a distance, such as, for example, (www.cobiss.ba) maintained by the National and University Library in Sarajevo (www.nub.ba) with members of the Virtual Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ViBBIH) consortium. Thanks to information technology, libraries were able to automate their many functions such as: acquisition, loan, material processing and other work procedures that were previously performed manually. The publishing production of databases has enabled libraries to offer users, through free access or licensing, access to the most diverse contents, Conclusion: Thus, digital libraries have numerous advantages, they are organizations that offer resources for use, include professional staff that select, organize, provide intellectual access, explain, distribute, preserve the integrity and ensure the durability of collections of digital works in such a way that they are ready and economically available for use by one or more communities. However, time steps on us every day, and so does technology, and new inventions, computers, cell phones, so I believe that we should not ignore the beauty when we pick up a book and read it. The historical value of books should not be neglected, both for our sake and for the sake of future generations.

Introduction The answer to the question of what a database is and what is its relevance to the scientific research is not easy. We may not be wrong if we say that it is, basically, a kind of information resource, often incomparably richer than it is, for example, a single book or magazine. Discussion and conclusion As a form of storing and retrieval of the knowledge, appeared in the information age, which we’ve just participated and witnesses. In it, thanks to the technical possibilities of information networks, it can be searched for a number of more or less relevant information, and that scientific and profound content. Databases are divided into: bibliographic databases, citation databases and databases containing full-text. In the paper are shortly presented most important on-line databases with their web site links. Thanks to those online databases scientific knowledge is spreading much more easy and useful.

Islamic manuscript books had an over-eminent role in the spreading of literacy and dissemination of knowledge of Islamic provenance in Bosnia and Herzegovina not only among ulemah circles but rather among ordinary people in general. Those facts are proved by several thousands of such books which are preserved in national and foreign collections, most famous among them being preserved in Gazy Husrev-bey’s library in Sarajevo and Bašagić’s collection in Bratislava, Slovakia. Authentic evidence of the possession and use of Islamic manuscripts in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Ottoman Empire, which ended in 1878, are comprised in sijjils of shariah law. Sijjyl is a collection of court records of certain territorial-administrative area which resulted out of a professional judicial practice in a certain time period. These documents are peculiar civilization registers whose content includes various topics – currently unavoidable study of political, economic, social and cultural history of a town or a wider region. The above mentioned facts suggest the importance of the catalogues of Islamic manuscripts and archive registers dating from Ottoman-empire period in Bosnia and Herzegovina.