Social Responsibility of Science - a program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education implemented at the Wroclaw University Library

The Wroclaw University Library is the beneficiary of funds allocated by the Ministry of Education and Science in 2023 under the "Social Responsibility of Science - Support for research libraries" program in the amount of 158 330 PLN. The received funding allowed for the implementation of two projects: (1) Collection of the Potocki family from Krzeszowice. Development of the Wroclaw University Library's computer catalog and (2) Silesiaca and Lusatica – dissemination of unique journals from the Wroclaw University Library.

Employees of the University Library's Monographs Department and the Serials Department undertook a retrospective, comprehensive computer processing of the book collection from the collection of the Potocki family from Krzeszowice and selected periodical titles from the Silesian-Lusatian collection of the Library.

The first project included the selection and processing of 1,200 copies of monographs, that are part of the historical collection of the Potocki family from Krzeszowice. These books were published from the beginning of the 19th century until the 1940s. The collection of the Potocki family from Krzeszowice, currently scattered in various libraries, museums and archival institutions, is an example of a very well-preserved Polish pre-war aristocratic collection. It was built by the family over the course of over a century - from 1822, when the Krzeszowice line of the Potocki family emerged, until 1946, when the collections came under state management. In the years 1948-1949, part of them went to the Wroclaw University Library; other parts are kept by the National Library and the Jagiellonian Library. The vast majority of items in this collection come from the period of Galician autonomy (approx. 1867-1918), thanks to which it creates an interesting picture of the literary, cultural and social reality of those days.

Statuta polskÿe crola Kazimirza w Wÿslÿci slozone / copied and afterword by K. Stronczyński. Warszawa: at S. Orgelbrand, approx. 1840.

The themes of the collection are very diverse: they reflect the interests of the owners, their travels and fascinations, but also the political situation of that times. As the years passed, the collection was also enriched by gifts received by the Potocki family and deposits from the resources of friendly collectors. It therefore includes items from such diverse fields of knowledge as medicine, science, history, religion and philosophy, agronomy and animal breeding, geography, industrial activities, economics, law. Religious and devotional literature constitutes a significant part of the collection. It includes items of various nature - from prayer books, collections of songs, catechetical and didactic writings, through sermons and speeches delivered during important church ceremonies, to historical or biographical works devoted to religious issues, in particular to the figures of clergy and saints known at that time.

Biblia, Talmud i Ewangelia / by Eliasz Sołoweyczyk; translation under the direction of Xawery Korczak Branicki. Paryż: at Drukarnia Polska A. Reiffa, 1879.

Also noteworthy is the multitude of publications relating to the socio-political life that was dynamically developing in former Galicia and in Krakow itself. Gathered works include many speeches by parliamentarians and councilors (as well as candidates for that positions), pamphlets and political proclamations, but also - making a great impression with their numbers - statutes of societies and organizations dealing with all spheres of human activity. There is also no shortage of already adopted laws, as well as proposed draft laws or statements on matters involving public opinion. The creators of the collection - the Potocki family of the Krzeszowice line - were strongly interested in current political as well as social life, taking place primarily in the aristocratic and landed gentry spheres. This is evidenced by the presence of many prints relating to this type of events in the book collection - for example, accounts of family celebrations, speeches given on such occasions and biographical memoirs devoted to important figures of the society of that time. An important place in the Potocki's collection is occupied by works written by important representatives of the landed gentry and nobility, who set the tone for the cultural and social reality of the second half of the 19th century. It is worth mentioning Stanisław Tarnowski here. This interests of the owners of the collection are also reflected in the very significant share of publications concerning Krakow and its socio-political life, and more broadly - the Krakow land and the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.

Niebo i ziemia: pogadanki spisane dla panien hrabianek Róży i Zofii Potockich / Stanisław Kluczycki. Kraków: published by F. Kluczycki, 1894.

Books included in the Potocki's collection were published in various places - both in Poland (in nearby Krakow, Warsaw, Lviv and Vilnius), and abroad - in Paris and Vienna. Most of them are Polish-language works, but there are also works published in French and German, Latin, Czech and Russian. It is worth mentioning that this collection, expanded by subsequent generations of the family, retained almost its full integrity until the outbreak of World War II. The collection is of great historical and cultural value and can undoubtedly be considered a model example of Polish 19th-century collecting. The received ministerial funds allowed for the processing of the entire collection of the Potocki family from Krzeszowice, owned by the Wroclaw University Library. The total number of this collection is over 4,000 items.

Opis obchodu uroczystości jubileuszowej 25-letniéj działalności Towarzystwa Wzajemnych Ubezpieczeń w Krakowie święconéj w dniu 8 Czerwca 1886 roku / written on the basis of authentic documents by Józef Mrazka. In Kraków: «Czas» Printing house, 1887.

The goal of the second project was the selection and computer processing of 160 unique titles of serial publications from the Silesian-Lusatian collection, including titles such as: Katolik: pismo poświęcone nauce, przemysłowi, zabawie i wiadomościom politycznym (Mikołów 1868-1931), Niderslezje (Wrocław 1948-1950), Ober-Lausitzer Anzeiger (Rothenburg 1842-1851) or Ober-Lausitzer Beobachter (Seidenberg 1850-1852).

The special value of the University Library's collection of Silesian periodicals is evidenced primarily by its historical provenance. The collection includes publications on Silesia and Lusatia called Silesiaca and Lusatica. The Silesiaca collection consists of all materials whose content is related to the Silesian region, biographies of people who have been active in this region, as well as Polonica (publications published in Silesia region before 1945). Lusatica are materials related to the Lusatian region, regardless of language or place of publication, as well as all prints in the Lusatian language. The Silesian-Lusatian collection includes monographs and periodicals published from the 16th century to 1945, coming from the former University Library and the City Library, from the post-war recovery of collections from all over Silesia and Lusatia, from other pre-war libraries in Wroclaw, as well as new prints published after 1945 that originate from a mandatory copy, purchases, donations as well as domestic and foreign exchange. An important part of that collection are serials published from the 18th century to the present time. It is the largest resource of pre-war Polish press published in Silesia in Poland and in the world. Almost 100% of the periodicals published in Wroclaw have been preserved. The Silesian-Lusatian collection is a historical collection of prints about Wroclaw called Wratislaviana. This collection comes from the former City Library of Wrocław. Particularly valuable periodicals and monographs are successively secured on microfilms and digitally, which allows for presentation and dissemination in the Digital Library of the University of Wrocław.

The reason for continuing of the computer cataloging of periodicals from the Silesian-Lusatian collection was the fact that these already processed objects constitute an example of excellent material documenting the cultural achievements and the development of science in Silesia and Lusatia regions over several centuries. This collection contains many rare publications that have not been recorded anywhere else, which is an additional cognitive value. However, the open thematic formula, which gives these publications an interdisciplinary dimension, will certainly find its recipients both in the scientific world and among society.

The periodical titles qualified for the ministerial project were comprehensively cataloged in the VTLS/VIRTUA program in the MARC21 format for the NUKAT National Universal Union Catalog, along with a complete set of required descriptions of the authority subject headings (KHW), including bibliographic descriptions of the causative institutions, publishing institutions, personal subject headings and advanced subject headings in KABA language thematically describing a given periodical. 127 KHW entries and 425 advanced subject headings of my own authorship were developed, a total of 41 KHW entries were modified and 1,466 KHW entries and d advanced subject headings were linked to bibliographic records. Detailed descriptions of items were prepared in the local database of the WUL's computer catalog according to the required templates, including any co-published or independent supplements. The 160 items records contain 24,302 units (i.e. volumes, issues, supplements, etc.).

In this way, information about valuable publications is available and promoted both locally and globally. This will enable all interested parties, mainly specialists in history, cultural anthropology and linguists in Poland and around the world, to properly prepare sources and bibliographies for their scientific work.

The actions undertaken so far by the University Library to increase access to its resources have already brought measurable results: they have introduced information about many valuable sources of knowledge into the global scientific circulation, and the work carried out in the projects described above contributes to increasing this resource. The implementation of both projects was possible thanks to ministerial funding under the Social Responsibility of Science program, and information about 160 titles of unique periodical publications from the Silesian-Lusatian collection and 1,200 titles of unique works from the collection of the Potocki family from Krzeszowice entered scientific circulation.

Examples of periodicals from the Silesian-Lusatian collection cataloged as part of the project:

Zuzanna Strześniewska-Piątek, WUL's Monographs Department
Ewa Grabarska, WUL's Serials Department
Monika Górska, projects manager