INFORMATION ON LIBRARIES AND LIBRARY SERVICE IN POLAND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700230181-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 181
• Publication Date: June 30, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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STAT
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INFORMATION ON LIBRARIES AND LIBRARY SERVICE IN POLAND
74ycie Szkoly Wyzszej
Warsaw, No 778, 19
The university libraries were representative of Polish scientific libraries
before World War II. Of the approximately 8 million volumes in scientific li-
braries in prewar Poland, university libraries had about 2,796,028, plus
about 200,000 items in special collections. No uniform plan was followed to
meet the general needs of Polish science; each university had its special
plans and ambitions.
During the last 10 years, the number of scientific libraries has grown
and their stocks have multiplied. In 1939, the Maly Rocznik Statystyczny
(Small Statistical Yearbook) listed 28 institutions of higher learning, only
22 of which had scientific libraries, containing a total of 2,941,000 volumes.
In 1954, there were 31 school libraries under the Ministry of Higher Education
with a total of 6,925,335 volumes and 404,000 items in special collections.
The following table shows the number of volumes in libraries of higher
schools.
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Some centralization in the supply of books to libraries has been Trade in
the network of libraries of the Chief Technical Organization, the Ministry of
Corurunication, and the Ministry of Health.
The problem of supplying the libraries with books and periodicals by the
commercial distribution apparatus has still not been fully resolve. Despite
improvements in this field, Dorn Ksiazki [publishing house] still has not de-
veloped a system to assure the libraries a steady supply of items currently
published in Poland. An especially serious defect is the inefficiency of
Such [distribution agency) in supplying the libraries with foreign periodi-
cals.
There has been a great increase in the international exchan?e of publi-
cations. The Office for the International Exchange of Publications of the
National Library (Biuro Miedzynarodowej Wymiany Wydawnictw przy Biblio:sce
Narodowej) has made considerable increases each year in the numb,r of
mestic and international addresses on its mailing list. In 1952, there
was an increase of 1,354 and in 192, an increase of 644 new intern,:?.o::~i
addresses to the 4,125 on the mailing list in 1951. There was al;s in-
crease of 50 in 1952 and 37 in 1953 to the 1,40u do,,:u:.tic address.,; o;
list in 1951.
The networks of libraries of the vurior,:; econo;:;i, .vectors, es, nei.tiy
their technical libraries hove been especially active In the gror. . oP ne,
special libraries and in planned supply of domestic and intern aior::1 publi-
cations. The legal regulations of 1953 on the organization of vocational
libraries constitute a significant acco,,plishr.:ent. There are now about
50 special scientific and technical libraries in the lar;e network of voca-
tional libraries in the country.
Poland now has 427 special scientific libraries .pith u total of 6,235,0ri
volumes.
Cataloguing in many libraries is nether co..- iete nor u.iforrt, although;
(;rent improvements have bee:,,ade. .:ost of the pore important libraries in
Poland have at least the greater portion of their collections catalogued.
Publication of bibliographic Information ha:; been systematized under
a network of organizations coordinated by a center in the National Library.
The center publishes and distributes bibliographic infuriation on materials
in various libraries.
The Central Institute of scientific and Technical Documentation (Oen-
tralny Instytut Dokua:entacji tlaukowo- techniczeJ), usi;.L funds grunted for
the ;u dose, has developed , bibliographic information apparatus which is
important for the field of technical studies. Receni.ly, the Polish Acadect
of Sciences started a further expansion of the Canto:, for Biblio?ruphy and
Documentation (Osro ,t..k Bibi.ior-"f__ ; n-!- =".'n:?' .? ' ), es,eci.=lly in the fields
of general. scientific knowledge and the exact sciences.
A great need which has not been fully realised is that of central catt.-
loLuin . Furthermore, ti;ere are still many private collection:; .:hich do not
appear in u.J bibliographies.
A beginningtosard central cataloguing for all of Poland has been made
in pract.cairy all libraries of the main higher schools, which are incor or-
ating collections of individual school divisions into a central school ua,:-
logue. In over 1,500 such divisions, there is a total of 2.5 million vol,;mes,
catalog,.ing of which is to be concentrated in 65 centers to ::eke them more
readily available to scientific workers.
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Great progress is being made in microfilming the more valuable works. The
center of this operation is in the National Library and, in addition,libraries
and archives such as the Ossolineum, the university libraries in Wroclaw and
Poznan, the Scientific Society of Torun, and the archives in Warsaw and Poznan
do microfilm work. Microfilming on an interlibrary basis is done by the Mi-
crofilm Station (Stacja Mikrofilmowa) of the National Library, which also
publishes a catalog of microfilm materials.
Expansion of old and construction of new libraries is progressing slowly
but continually.
The Institute of Library Knowledge (Instytut Bibliotekoznawstwa) is
now being organized in the National Library. The institute will have, as
its four basic library functions, the organizations of a scientific work-
shop (bibliographies, general and special catalogues, card files, etc.),
the popularization of knowledge, the study of reading habits, and the ex-
change of library experiences and technology. It will be the first center
of organized scientific work on library science. Heretofore, only the
Commission for Biblior~rapty and Libra., Knowledge (Komisja Biblio6rafii i
Bibliotekoznawstwa), organized in 1953 by the Wroclaw Scientific Society,
did organized work on library science. The commission works closely with
Wroclaw University Library.
The scientific libraries' organ, Prze glad Bibllotecz , is published
by the Association of Polish Librarians Stowarzyszenie Bibliotekarzy Pol-
skitch). Another publication of this association is Bibliotekarz, which
serves various other library networks.
Problems on bibliographic theory are covered in the Biuletyn Istytutu
Biblio raficzneeo Biblioteki Narodowe (Bulletin of the Bibliographical
Institute of th National Library . Many libraries are publishing ac-
quisition lists; the Biuletyn Info rmacy ny Osrodka Biblio rafii i Dokumentac i
PAN (Information Bulletin of the Bibliography and Documentation Center of the
Polish Academy of Sciences) is the most recent publication of this type to appear.
Various programs and courses have been started for training librarians.
The problem of training staffs for scientific libraries is a key problem.
Its solution depends on whether libraries receive the residue of other
professions or whether they receive fully qualified and well-trained pro-
fessional librarians.
7sycie Szkoly Wyzszej Piotr Kaltenberg
Warsaw, No , 19
The recent work, Wykaz Polskich Bibliotek Nauko ch Wedlu S ec alizac i
(A List o' Polish Scientific Libraries According to Subject , is listed in
Biuletyn Instytutu Bibliograficznego (Bulletin of the Bibliographic Institute),
Vol IV, No 3, second edition, National Library, Warsaw, 1953, page 156. The
work contains a listing of 749 libraries (mostly scientific), with a total of
20 million volumes. The book does not cover vocational libraries (mostly
technical), since these are the concern of the Central Institute of Scientific
and Technical Documentation.
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LIBRARIES IN THE SERVICE OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
cie Szko W zsze
Warsaw, No , l9 5 4
The SGPiS [Szkola Glowna Planowania i Statystyki, Main School of
Planning and Statistics) library offers a typical example of library
service available to colleges and universities. It now has 220,000
catalogued volumes, which include material in the fields of history,
economic thought, political economy, specific economics, history of the
worker movement, economic history, and economic geography. It also has
a textbook collection of 37,000 volumes. This textbook collection includes
classic works on Marxism-Leninism, literature required and recommended by
the school faculties, various publications in related subjects, and other
works.
To meet the specific needs of students and of scientific workers, the
library has two reading rooms. The scientific reading room is served by the
library's main collection, which is alphabetically and systematically ~ats-
logued and is available only in the company of a library worker. The rocu
also has special subject card files. At present, the library serves the
scientific worker by offering bibliographic advice and bibliographic re-
search of a scientific character.
A select catalogue of 20,000 items serves the students in the general
reading room. A greater portion of this catalogue includes required and
recommended reading for the students in higher economic schools, the more
outstanding popular-science works, works of a journalistic character (espe-
cially on political and social problems), and documentary materials on public
life, such as instructions, statutes, and regulations.
Besides the select catologue for the use of the general reading room,
special subject card files have been made available. These include
literature on special and important problem topics.
The bibliographic information service was organized at the library in
1949. Besides its information service, it is now engaged in compiling a
bibliography on the development of planning in Poland over the last 10
years.
Other inibrmatienal services, uch as exhibits and special staffs to
aid readers in all branches of the library, are also available. However,
the library does not compile bibliographies for dissertations.
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