National Library of Poland

Biblioteka Narodowa
English	National Library of Poland
Type	National library
Established	1928
Location	Warsaw, Poland
Other information
Director	Dr. Tomasz Makowski
Website	www.bn.org.pl

The National Library of Poland (Polish: Biblioteka Narodowa) is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.

The library collects books, journals, electronic and audiovisual publications published in the territory of Poland, as well as Polonica published abroad. It is the most important humanities research library, the main archive of Polish writing and the state centre of bibliographic information about books. It also plays a significant role as a research facility and is an important methodological center for other Polish libraries.

The National Library receives a copy of every book published in Poland as legal deposit. Jagiellonian Library is the only other library in Poland to have the status of national library.

Organizational structure

There are three general sections:

• The Library
• The Bibliographic Institute of the National Library
• The Book and Readership Institute

History

Special Collections Building located in the Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw

The National Library's history has origins in the 18th century (Załuski Library)^[1] including items from the collections of John III Sobieski which were obtained from his grand daughter Maria Karolina Sobieska, Duchess of Bouillon.

On 24 February 1928, by the decree of president Ignacy Mościcki, the National Library was created in its modern shape.^[2] It was opened in 1930.

Its first Director General was Stefan Demby, succeeded in 1934 by Stefan Vrtel-Wierczyński.

The library collections were to be accommodated in several places, e.g. in some rooms of the School of Economics. In 1935 the Potocki Palace in Warsaw became house for special collections.

Before World War II, the library collections consisted of:

• 6.5 million books and journals from 19th and 20th centuries
• 3,000 early prints
• 2,200 incunables
• 52,000 manuscripts
• maps, icons and music

In 1940 the Nazi occupants changed the National Library into Municipal Library of Warsaw and divided it as follows:

• Department of Books for Germans (located in the Warsaw University building)
• Restricted Department, containing books that were not available to readers (located in the then main seat of the library - the School of Economics)
• All special collections from various Warsaw offices and institutions (located in the Palace of the Commonwealth)

In 1944 the special collections were set ablaze by the Nazi occupants as a part of repressions after the Warsaw Uprising.^[3] 80,000 early printed books, including priceless 16th-18th century Polonica, 26,000 manuscripts, 2,500 incunabula, 100,000 drawings and engravings, 50,000 pieces of sheet music and theater materials were destroyed.^[4]

Collections

Main reading room

Today the collections of the National Library are one of the largest in the country. Among 7,900,000 volumes (2004) held in the library there are 160,000 objects printed before 1801, over 26,000 manuscripts (including 6887 music manuscripts), over 114,000 music prints and 400,000 drawings. The library collections include also photographs and other iconographic documents, more than 101,000 atlases and maps, over 2,000,000 ephemera, as well as over 2,000,000 books and about 800,000 copies of journals from 19th to 21st centuries. Notable items in the collection include 151 leaves of the Codex Suprasliensis, which was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2007 in recognition of its supranational and supraregional significance.^[5]

See also

• Załuski Library
• National Library

References

Notes

1. ^ Pasztaleniec-Jarzyńska 2000, p. 5
2. ^ Pasztaleniec-Jarzyńska 2000, p. 3
3. ^ (English) Rebecca Knuth (2006). Burning books and leveling libraries: extremist violence and cultural destruction. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 166. ISBN 02-75990-07-9. 
4. ^ Pasztaleniec-Jarzyńska 2000, p. 9
5. ^ (English) "Codex Suprasliensis". portal.unesco.org. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22473&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Retrieved 2011-02-07. 

General references

1. (Polish) Pasztaleniec-Jarzyńska, Joanna; Tchórzewska-Kabata, Halina (2000), The National Library in Warsaw: tradition and the present day, National Library, ISBN 83-70092-95-0 .

External links

• National Library website
• Polona - National Digital Library
• A Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures (an exhibition carried out by the National Library)

Coordinates: 52°12′52″N 21°00′16″E / 52.21444°N 21.00444°E / 52.21444; 21.00444