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