Libraries and Library Consortia in Poland

Presentation prepared for the 5-th E-ICOLC

Denmark 22-25 October 2003

Few data – Public Libraries

The number of public libraries about 8850. Out of these, 2697 are libraries and 6152 are their

branches. The unquestionable majority of public libraries (over

5,5 thousand) is situated in the country. Public libraries book collection reaches 133,7 million

volumes (since 1990 it has decreased by 3 million volumes).

About 7,5 million people borrow each year about 140 million books and consult about 19 million in the reading rooms.

Few data – Academic Libraries

1225 academic libraries (including 989 university ones).

9 460 employees. Their collections about 58 million volumes of

books, about 16 million volumes of periodicals and about 26 million units of special collections.

Academic libraries recorded over 2,1 million readers and over 17 million loans annually (average).

Library Consortia–Nasty Reality

No „library consortium” in Polish law Lack of the tradition of cooperation The word „consortium” has been

appropriated by publishers who organised groups of libraries to purchase their products

Nasty Reality – yet....

Libraries form consortia in order to realise many collective goals: through various associations, agreements create consortia de facto, though not de iure

Examples:VTLS group, HUG utilising software (ILL) coming from the same producer.

Examples – cont.

share the hardware (computer systems) and/or software (Krakow, Poznan, Lodz) which results in collective management and administration of these resources

NUKAT – Polish Union Catalogue Polish Virtual Library – common access to

electronic journals

Examples – cont.

The only one that has legal entity

Established in 1996 by academic and research libraries in Poznan

10 universities + 2 public libraries that have a status of research library

Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries Mission

Create and maintain a structure that will provide access to information for research, academic and educational environment of our town.

Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries Vision

Organize remote access to metadata about all resources kept in member libraries

Provide access to the most important electronic journals

Organize remote access to full-text monographs and textbooks

Organize remote access to cultural heritage of our region

Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries Actions

Organizing tenders (purchases of software and hardware, access to e-journals)

Installing hardware and implementing software Servicing and maintaining systems Organizing trainings Publishing manuals Organizing marketing, promotion and fundraising

Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries where are we now?

69000 patrons, more than 500 PCs Country coordinator of eifl project 52 libraries cooperating within „Coalition

for Library with horizon” -Virtual cataloque KaRo –became the most popular tool for Polish librarians

Digital Library www.wbc.poznan.pl and more...

Thank you!

Jan Andrzej Nikisch

Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries

www.pfsl.poznan.pl

nikisch@pfsl.poznan.pl