Božo Težak

Božo Težak (1907-1990) was a Croatian and Yugoslav pioneer of information sciences.

Life

Božo Težak was born on July 27, 1907, in the Croatian city of Varaždin, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He completed his primary education (1914–1917) and secondary education at a gymnasium (1917–1925) in Varaždin. He obtained the title of chemical engineer in 1930 from the Chemical Engineering Department of the Technical Faculty at the University of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Zagreb. He defended his doctoral thesis in chemistry at the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University of Ljubljana (1945). He passed away on May 16, 1980, in Zagreb (Žugaj, 1990: 145–146; Hrvatska enciklopedija, 2013–2026).

Contributions

Alongside numerous professional duties, projects, committee memberships, efforts to promote new chemical methods and techniques, and the founding of the Central Chemical Library in Zagreb (1946), he played an active role in the preparations for establishing the Faculty of Organization and Informatics in Varaždin. He launched the International Permanent Exhibition of Publications (ISIP), which, during the Cold War, provided Yugoslav scientists with access to scientific publications from the West.

In the field of information sciences, his work in establishing the Centre for Postgraduate Studies in Librarianship, Documentation, and Information Sciences (1961–1980) was particularly significant (Cveljo, 1980: 79–80). Well-versed in developments regarding the monitoring of scientific work and researcher productivity, and following the evolution of computer applications in information retrieval and database creation, Težak launched the Referral Centre of the University of Zagreb in 1967 (at the time, the only university in Croatia). Driven by his own vision of a new scientific field he termed it Informatology (Muljević, 1980: 35–41).

His E-T-AK-S-A theory was based on the view that documentation contributes to the development of science across all fields of human knowledge. Advocating for the broadest possible conception of information science – both as a professional activity and as a scientific discipline – Težak proceeded from the understanding that the process of collecting, processing, transmitting, and presenting data and information is, in a broad sense, indivisible, and that genuine results in this field can be achieved only through a holistic approach that encompasses the study and improvement of every part of that process (Žugaj, 1990–1991: 148, 151).

Thanks to his ideas, the field of information sciences was incorporated into the official classification of sciences in Croatia in 1983. This was also a time when the field of information sciences began to develop more vigorously outside Zagreb – specifically at the universities in Osijek and Zadar. The development of information sciences in Croatia was shaped by local intellectual strengths, the gradual strengthening of IT infrastructure, and a tradition rooted primarily in the humanities. All programs fundamentally adhered to Težak’s concepts of interdisciplinarity and the convergence of technology and the archive library and museum sector. Consequently, he can undoubtedly be considered a pioneer of information sciences – and specifically of Informatologija (information science) – in the former Yugoslavia.

He started several journals in the field of chemistry, the Association of Scientific Unions of Yugoslavia, the permanent international conference "Universities in the World Network of Information and Communications" at the Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik, and the scientific journals Informatologia Yugoslavica (1969 – 1980) and Sciencia Yugoslavica (1975–1980).

Offices

After completing his military service, he remained working at the Military Technical Institute of the Yugoslav Army and Navy in Obilićevo – Kruševac (today's Republic of Serbia) (1932–1936). He returned to Zagreb where he was appointed as city engineer (1937–1945). He founded the School for Civil Protection in Zagreb, of which he was the director (1938–41). He is the founder of the University's Referral Center, of which he was the director from 1972 until the end of his life (Muljević, 1980: 35–41; Žugaj, 1990–1991: 146).

He was a member of many domestic and international associations, including the American Documentation Institute, ASLIB, The Faraday Society — London, then the American Society for Information Science, and a member of the Editorial Board of Current Abstracts of Chemistry and Index Chemicus (Žugaj: 146–147).

Publications

Bibliography

Božo Težak (2017). Znanstveno djelo Bože Težaka / The Scientific Work of Božo Težak. Informatologia 50 (1/2): 1–13. [1]

In the late 1950s, he developed a keen interest in documentation and information science. Works in the field of Information Sciences/Informatologia that garnered significant attention include:

Težak, Božo (1985). The Contact Points for Emission, Transmission and Absorption in Scientific Documentation. Universitay Zagrabiensis – Informationes 4: 3.
Težak, Božo (1967). International Permanent Exhibition of Publications – ISIP, as a Node Point for an Information Sharing Network. Proceedings of American Documentation Institute 4: 224.
Težak, Božo (1969). Informaciono-dokumentaciono-komunikacioni (INDOK) sistem: Emisiono-transmisiono-akumulaciono-selektiono-apsorpcioni (e-t-ak-s-a) kompleks kao konceptualna podloga INDOK sistema. [Information-documentation-communication (INDOK) system: Emission-Transmission-Accumulation-Selection-Absorption (e-t-ak-s-a) complex as the conceptual basis of the INDOK system]. Informatologia Yugoslavica 1 (1/4): 1–11.
Težak, Božo (1969). Informacione znanosti i službe: njihova struktura, odnosi i politika. [Information sciences and services: their structure, relations and politics.] Informatologia Yugoslavica 1 (1/4): 13–30.
Težak, Božo (1971). Informatika – ime za zbunjujući ili razjašnjavajući koncept. [Informatics – a name for a confusing or clarifying concept.] Informatologia Yugoslavica 3 (1/4): 1–13.
Težak, Božo (1970). Nastavni plan Centra za studij bibliotekarstva, dokumentacije i informacionih znanosti – SBDIZ-a. [Curriculum of the Center for the Study of Librarianship, Documentation and Information Sciences – SBDIZ.] Informatologia Yugoslavica 2 (1/4): 95–186.
Težak, Božo (1975). International Referral Centre for Information Handling Equipment – IRCIHE within UNISIST Programme. IRCIHE Bulletin (1): 1–11.
Težak, Božo (1979). Informacije i komunikacije – jučer, danas, sutra: Na raskrižju između rasula i organskog rata. [Information and Communications – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: At the Crossroads Between Chaos and Organic War.] Informatologia Yugoslavica 11 (1/2): 1–6.

Awards

Gold medal and plaque for the zealous service of King of Yugoslavia Alexander, 1934.
Order of Labor II. order of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia,1967.
Lifetime Achievement Award of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, 1970.
Charter for many years of tireless and creative work on the establishment, expansion and international affirmation of the Center for postgraduate studies in librarianship, documentation and information sciences (posthumous). 1981.