Ljubica Širec was born in Zagreb in 1944. She went elementary school in Zagreb and Pula, graduated high school in Pula. She studied history and art history at the Faculty of Philosophy in Ljubljana, but because of sickness and long-term treatment in 1966 only finished the first stage. From 1970 she worked in the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula as museum technician, working on matters of running the photographic collection and documentation, with occasional guiding and collaboration in putting up exhibitions.
In 1985 she took her degree, and from then on ran the Medieval Department in the museum in Pula, studying ceramics of later periods, and at the same time engaged in educational work. Applying contemporary educational methods, she founded the Schools Service for collaboration between the museum and schools and other educational institutions.
At the time of the Homeland War she was a member of the Republican Commission of the Croatian Conservation Institute for listing artworks and museum inventory in Brijuni; she worked on inventorying the religious heritage of Istria. She was expert associated and co-author a number of exhibitions, including: Collection of Religious Art -Pinacotheque and Library of Parish Church in Vodnjan; Archaeology and Art of Istria; Magical Istria, which the museum took to N. America and many countries of Europe. She had a very fruitful joint project with graduands of the Educational Faculty in Pula - Know Your City, and this led to work with kindergartens, with special needs persons, and retirement homes. She worked with UNESCO Youth Conferences in Dubrovnik and Zagreb with the same project. She has published texts concerning museum education in Muzejski glaznik Istre, Informatica Museologica and other museum publications. With societies from Labin she has published a work-and-teaching notebook for primary and secondary school children Life of the Romans, and with the help of work sheets has dealt with various topics at museum workshops: Let’s Remember History and Customs of Culture; Opulence of Ornaments; Jewellery; Gleams from Museums and others.
She has authored several scholarly and a number of specialised articles, and several exhibition catalogues. She has been retired since 2003.

NB. Data taken from the questionnaire, material taken from the Personnel Archives of the MDC, and from an interview recorded on March 23, 2007.