Volume 56 of the “The National Library Yearbook”
Volume 56 of the The National Library Yearbook has been published. The volume features articles devoted to the history of school libraries, the Polish press published in Russia during the First World War, archival materials donated to the National Library, and the development of the library network in Łódź. Abstracts of all the articles in English are available at rocznik.bn.org.pl.
Dr Maria Przeciszewska of the National Library’s Institute of Books and Readership examines, in a two-part article, the functioning of school libraries in state secondary schools in the Vistula Land between 1867 and 1905. The author discusses their origins, aims and responsibilities, funding arrangements, and methods of acquiring books. She also analyses the classification and cataloguing of collections, their ideological profile, and their reception among pupils, drawing, among other sources, on the surviving lending register of the state secondary school in Lublin.
Dr Mikołaj Banaszkiewicz of the National Library’s Institute of Books and Readership presents the history of Głos Polski (The Polish Voice), one of the most important Polish periodicals published in Russia during the First World War. The author describes the beginnings of the periodical, profiles its editors and most important contributors, and analyses the weekly’s journalism, reconstructing its political profile.
Dr Anna Maria Osińska of the National Library’s Manuscripts Department describes the archives of the Centro Incontri e Studi Europei and the Associazione Pier Giorgio Frassati, as well as materials from the Wanda Gawrońska Archive, which were donated to the National Library at the turn of 2022 and 2023. The article discusses, among other topics, the scholarship and relief activities of these institutions, the organisation of academic trips, the shipment of books to Central and Eastern European countries, and cooperation with the Catholic University of Lublin.
The volume concludes with an article by Dr Halina Bernat, Acting Director of the Book Art Museum in Łódź and Deputy Director of the University of Warsaw Library, devoted to the principles behind and history of the rapid development of the Municipal Library in Łódź. The author presents the process of merging five Łódź libraries into a single network, the standardisation of their operating procedures, the modernisation of branches, the development of new services, and the creation of the modern MeMo Mediatheque.
Volume 56 of the National Library Yearbook is available free of charge in electronic form on the journal’s website. The print edition can be purchased from the National Library’s online bookshop and from the bookshop located in the National Library’s main building at 213 Niepodległości Avenue in Warsaw.