The National Library of Poland, subject to the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, is the central state library and one of the most important cultural institutions in Poland. It was established in 1928 and is governed by the Act of 17 June 1997 on Libraries and the National Library Statute.

While fulfilling the responsibilities of a large research library, it is also the central archive of the Polish writing and a national centre of bibliographic information on books, a signi­ficant research institution and a major methodological centre for other libraries in Poland. Digitization of collections as well as sharing electronic copies of the library resources are the essential part of the National Library activity.

The Library acquires, describes, stores and makes available library materials where expres­sions of human thought are preserved, irrespective of their physical medium and the way the contents are recorded. This task is performed with respect to the entirety of the natio­nal editorial production, all Polish publications or those about Poland published abroad, monuments of the Polish writing, foreign publications in humanities and social science, especially bibliology, necessary for the Polish research and culture to develop, with a spe­cial mention of information publications.

The activities of the Library involve research, instruction and methodological tasks, docu­mentation, unification and services related to library science, bibliography, scientific infor­mation, readership, editing and connected fields of study as well as preservation of library materials. The responsibilities of the Library in this respect include specifically:

·   individual and team research works;

·   advanced description of the Library collections;

·   providing scientific information in accordance with the Library’s profile, in cooperation with other libraries and institutions in Poland and abroad;

·   maintaining central catalogues of documents of the Polish and foreign writing kept in the Polish Libraries;

·   conducting unification and standardization works in accordance with the library profile;

·   spreading information about the results of scientific research and providing help, con­sultations and opinions within the scope of the Library’s field of research;

·   release of scientific, methodological and documentation publications;

·   participation in nationwide research and documentation works within the scope of the Library’s field of research;

·   professional training for librarians and certification training courses.

ACQUISITION AND CATALOGUING

As the central state library, the National Library of Poland acquires, catalogues and makes ava­ilable all publications issued in Poland as well as those related to Poland published abroad. At the end of 2017, the National Library collections, duplicates included, comprised 8.706.653 items.

Since 1996, the central computer catalogue of the National Library has been available on­line over the local network and the Internet. On 31 December 2017, the available bibliogra­phic and catalogue database included 10.555.479 records. This is the largest database of its kind in Poland. It provides the most effective tool for bibliographic inquiry, indispensable for research works.

The National Library is also the national bibliographic agency, a centre of authoritative bi­bliographic records for documents of the national heritage, specifically publications rece­ived pursuant to the Library Legal Deposit Act. By virtue of the Library Legal Deposit Act of November 7, 1996, and the follow-up Regulations of the Minister of Culture of March 6, 1997, the National Library obtains two copies of all traditional publications issued in Poland. The­se include: monographs, serials, newspapers, sheet music, atlases, maps, and ephemera documenting the country’s social, cultural, and political life, including posters, bills, com­mercial catalogues, brochures, and fliers. The Library also receives Braille publications, so­und recordings, and recently also audiovisual and electronic documents, which are inclu­ded in the recently amended Library Legal Deposit Act.

The national current bibliography composed of the following parts:

·     “Bibliographic Guide” – bibliography of non-serial publications,

·     “Bibliography of Serial Publications”

·     “Bibliography of Foreign Polonica” and “Polish Literature in Translation”

·    “Index to Periodicals” and the Common Database of the National Library and Public Libraries (press articles)

·    “Bibliography of Electronic Documents”

·    “Bibliography of Cartographic Documents”

·     “Bibliography of Sound Records”

The national retrospective bibliography:

·     “Polish Bibliography 1901-1939”

·    “Polish Underground Books (1976-1989)”

·     “Polish Underground Periodicals (1976-1990)”

and specialized bibliology bibliographies:

·     “Polish Bibliography of Bibliology”

·    “Bibliography of the Polish Bibliographies”

·     “Analytical Bibliography of Library and Information Science”.

 

DIGITAL COLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

In 2006, the National Digital Library POLONA was launched to publish selected resources of the National Library collections over the Internet. In 2017 its new digital interface was made available, enabling the users to perform quick and complex queries, apply dynamic filters to the search results, obtain a consolidated view of the search results, tag items and theirfragments, create notes, mark text passages, add bookmarks and share the contents they create with other Internet users.

The National Library Digital Repository was launched in 2008 in order to collect and share publications available in electronic version only (born-digital documents). To comply with the statutory requirement of library legal deposits, the publishers provide the Repository with documents in text formats such as electronic books and periodicals as well as audio­visual records. Additionally, publications released in hard copy are transferred to the Repo­sitory in order to ensure their safe archiving.

The Digital Lending Library of Scientific Publications Academica was launched in 2014. The aim of this innovative project was to introduce a new quality to the interlibrary loan system by replacing the traditional form of lending, i.e. sending paper copies by mail, with digital lending of the publications. Users of the portal, which was launched and officially opened at the beginning of December 2014, have access to over 2,5 million scientific publications under copyright through dedicated terminals located in scientific and public libraries throughout the country as well as to publications from public domain and licensed. Sharing of scientific publications is organized in accordance with the provisions of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights, and the works themselves are subject to copying and printing limits. Due to legal restrictions and rules of interlibrary loans, in the Academica system only one user within the territory of Poland at a time is provided with access to the publication, similarly as in the case of traditional library loans.

PUBLISHING ACTIVITY

The National Library also conducts publishing activities by releasing research papers, bi­bliographies and three research periodicals: “The National Library Yearbook”, “Conservator Notebook” and “Polish Libraries”, which documents the achievements of the Polish libra­ries in English.

Library Name	National Library of Poland
Country	Poland
Establishing Year	1928
Staff Number	850
Official Website	www.bn.org.pl