Science Dissemination Activities 2017 (Działalność Upowszechniająca Naukę - DUN)

Pre-war humanistic periodicals in the Wroclaw University Library - enlargement of the collections from computer catalog for bibliographic descriptions of periodicals from the former City Library and so called German concentration

Project realized in the period from 1.02.2017 to 30.11.2017
with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education - Activities for Dissemination of Science (Decision No. 651/P-DUN/2017).

Wroclaw University Library has the largest post-German collections in the country (both books and periodicals) that has been preserved and protected against war damage, as well as from shipping out and theft. Monographs have already been fully cataloged, while periodicals - not just yet.

Pre-war humanistic periodicals in the Wroclaw University Library that need to be cataloged, originated from three main sources:

• former City Library

• former University Library

• and from other libraries, not only Silesian, secured in Lower Silesia region after the war (so called "German concentration", restricted collections).

Up to 1939, the City Library was the largest city library in Germany. Its collections have survived Second World War and today enrich the humanist collections of the Wroclaw University Library. These collections mainly represent following fields of science: history, social sciences, law, philosophy, pedagogy, art with musicology and history of natural sciences, as well as they document the activities of various organizations and scientific societies (their statistics and reporting on research).

Major parts of the collections from the former University Library were destroyed. Collections that have survived focus mainly on law and religion issues, from different countries, including non-European ones.

Collections from various libraries, not only Silesian, but secured in Lower Silesia region, are multilingual publications from history, literature and art history.

Aim of that project was to catalog 90 titles of pre-war periodicals, create for them bibliographic and items records as well as circa 550 authority files.

Bibliographical cataloging in the VIRTUA system of Silesian music scores from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century

Project realized in the period from 1.02.2017 to 30.11.2017
with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education - Activities for Dissemination of Science (Decision No. 651/P-DUN/2017)

The goal of the task was to catalog in electronic form printed music scores of Silesian publishing houses and works of composers creating in the 19th and early 20th century in Silesia region. It is collection from the former Wroclaw City Library and also originating from the collections secured after the Second World War. The aim of the project is to catalog 300 prints and eventually to enter bibliographic descriptions to the central catalog of the Polish scientific library collections - NUKAT, as well as to make available authority files in the VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) database. Records of the prints will be supplementary to the RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales) catalog, where records of autographs and copies of handwritten works of Silesian composers selected for cataloging are already present. The aim of the task is to provide information about the works of composers and about music publishing houses operating in Silesia. Items selected for the cataloging are often works of little-known local composers, and that makes them unique. Expected users are musicologists, librarians, germanists, historians and others interested in Silesian music culture. Sharing of bibliographical records is necessary because of the ever-growing interest in history and, consequently, the musical culture of the region.

Dissemination of valuable sources for research by digitizing unique newspapers from the Silesia - Lusatian collection of the Wroclaw University Library

Project realized in the period from 1.02.2017 to 30.11.2017
with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education - Activities for Dissemination of Science (Decision No. 651/P-DUN/2017).

Items selected for digitization:

• Anzeiger für Zobten am Berge und Umgegend. Organ für öffentliches Leben, lokale und provinzielle Angelegenheiten
• Brockauer Zeitung. Organ für die amtliche Publikationen der Gemeinde und des Amtbezirks Brockau, sowie für die Gemeineden Gross Tschansch und Klein Tschansch
• Hundsfelder Stadtblatt. Mit den Obrigkeitlichen Bekanntmachungen

Considering that a large part of the Silesian and Lusatian press collections were printed in the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries on acid paper, making it available for users in the original form is becoming difficult. Acid paper breaks down and crumbles during usage, resulting in irreversible damages. For this reason, with each passing year number of volumes excluded from circulation is steadily growing. Trying to protect the valuable historical collection of the regional newspapers, the Library is systematically conducting protecting microfilming and scanning. The realization of this task will significantly increase the safety of historic collections, which are regional and Silesian as a whole heritage, by providing access to the content of items without the need for originals to be circulated to the users. On the other hand, the Library is making efforts to acquire funds for making electronic versions of old newspapers more accessible and thus, like with the microfilms, to protect originals. Due to the state of preservation of newspapers and magazines these activities are consider a priority. The whole task fits in with global efforts to create a universal research space by providing quick access to sources for research teams working not only on the region and Silesia as a whole, but also for the broader circles.