Polskie zbiornice księgozbiorów zabezpieczonych w latach 1947-1955

Abstract

This paper presents the origins, activities and results of the work of seven Polish Warehousing Centres for Protected Book Collections. They were established by the decision of the Ministry of Education on February 1, 1947, in Gdansk, Katowice, Krakow, Poznan, Szczecin, Torun and Wroclaw. The longest operating one, until December 31, 1955, was the Warehousing Centre for Protected Book Collections in Katowice. It should be noted that due to the work of the Warehousing Centres on the Polish territory, several million volumes, mostly of former German provenance, underwent protection and segregation. They were given primarily to universities and numerous academic institutions across the whole country. This significantly accelerated the restoration, after severe losses of the World War II period, of domestic libraries and Library Science. The saved works continuously aid the development of Polish science, especially Library Studies. The issue of Warehousing Centres is worthy of further research. There is a need for undertaking comprehensive studies of post-war protection of library collections in Europe, so that a partial reassessment of existing findings regarding the losses suffered during the World War II period would be possible. Thus, an international cooperation and the formation of teams leading multi-scientific inquiries should be established.