Common European heritage – protection and increasing accessibility to antiques of writing from Polish-German cultural border in Polish libraries
In years 1997 – 2002 Wroclaw University Library took part in greatest joint project of Polish and German libraries. Aim of that project was to select Silesian, Pomeranian and Prussian prints, microfilming them and processing them in electronic databases form catalog of microfilmed prints from 16th to 18th century that were published in Silesia, Pomeranian and East Prussia regions.
Program for processing and microfilming included:
- old prints from period 1501-1800,
- newspapers and periodicals from 19th and 20th century,
- Jewish periodicals and in Yiddish language,
- chosen masons prints from Adam Mickiewicz University Library.
In realization of that project participated: National Library in Warsaw, that later included in the project collections of The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Wroclaw University Library, Pomeranian Repository in Szczecin, Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, that choose to commission microfilming to outside company. From German side partner of project was Bavarian State Library in Munich.
Project was initiated and partially funded (circa 250 thousand euro) by Robert Bosch Foundation. But main financial support was received, with help of Robert Bosch Foundation, from Polish-German Cooperation Foundation in Warsaw (PGCF) that finally granted circa 2 million euro for realization of project.
During conducting of project 40,106 old prints and 5,486 volumes of newspapers and periodicals have been microfilmed on almost 5,100.000 microfilm stills. All of listed above materials (and many others) were also cataloged. PGCF funded during realization of project 20 regular posts and created microfilm workshops in: Warsaw, Wroclaw and Szczecin, equipping them with eight of highest value cameras. Foundation also bought 16 computers for libraries in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Gdansk and Poznan.
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek received so far 5,000 reels of microfilms along with catalog descriptions from Polish libraries, that were entered into their inside catalog.
Merging and unification of catalog databases from four libraries: National Library in Warsaw, Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw University Library and Pomeranian Repository in Szczecin were done by team from Section for Cataloging of Wroclaw University Library's Old Prints Department under the lead of Weronika Karlak. Merged database contained circa 35 thousand unified microfilms descriptions, including 17,070 descriptions of 16,006 microfilmed items from Wroclaw University Library, 14,500 descriptions of microfilmed items from National Library in Warsaw, 2,500 descriptions of microfilmed items from Pomeranian Repository in Szczecin and 2,500 descriptions of microfilmed items from Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Merged database is base for central electronic catalog of those descriptions that resides on on server of Wroclaw University Library. Besides of this, descriptions were also sent to European Register of Microfilm Masters (EROM – now called: The European Register of Microform and Digital Masters – EROMM). In this way, main goal of project has been completed: “availability of collections”, that mainly focus on information about localization of materials. As final stage of project, CD-ROM "Wspólne dziedzictwo europejskie. Druki XVI-XVIII w. ze zbiorów Biblioteki Narodowej, Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej we Wrocławiu, Książnicy Pomorskiej w Szczecinie i Biblioteki Gdańskiej PAN. Katalog mikrofilmów (Common European heritage. Prints from 16th to 18th century in collections of National Library in Warsaw, Wroclaw University Library, Pomeranian Repository in Szczecin and Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Microfilm catalog)" was published with active participation of W. Karlak from Wroclaw University Library.
During realization of the project, within every fragmentary agreement some funds for print conservation were secured. As a result of this, in years 1998-2000, from received funds, Special Collections’ Conservation Workshop of Wroclaw University Library renovated 159 volumes of old prints.