Protection of the Polish written and printed heritage – National Library Resource

Protection of the Polish written and printed heritage – National Library Resource Written and printed works are one of the most important cultural achievements of every country and nation. This often priceless heritage is protected, among other things, by libraries which are responsible for collecting, preparing, storing, protecting and sharing their collections. The article focuses on one form of protection of these resources – the Polish National Library Resource (NLR), which has a legal basis and gives examples of good practice. The analysis presented in this paper covers the normative Acts that cover only those collections which are unique and exceptionally valuable for Polish culture. It was found that perception of these special collections has changed and that nowadays there are only a small number of libraries that take part in the NLR programme.


Introduction
Libraries are institutions responsible for collecting, preparing, storing, protecting and sharing library resources, which may be included under the category of movable cultural heritage. According to Section 3.1 of Poland's Act of 27 June 1997 on the libraries "Libraries and their collections are part of the national treasure and are used to preserve national heritage". 1 According to the latest data, based on reports submitted by individual libraries (K-03 -Libraries Report Form 2 and given by Statistics Poland, in Poland in 2018 there were 9,406 libraries. 3 The aim of this article is to present the legal position and facts about a small number of Polish library collections, known as the National Library Resource (hereinafter: NLR), which was defined in Section 6 of the Act of 27 June 1997 on the libraries: "Library collections that have unique value and meaning for the national heritage are, in full or in part, a National Library Resource." 4 The same section also emphasizes that the NLR is given special protection (Section 6.2) and indicates a further legislative framework: that the Minister of Art and Culture, in agreement with the competent ministers, is to establish, by regulation, a list of libraries whose collections belong to the National Library Resource, define the structure of the resource and set the rules and the scope of its special protection 5 (section 6.3). Such regulations were published in 1998, 2009, 2012, 2016 and 2017.

Libraries in Poland
In Poland there is an extensive library network which is composed of leading facilities of various types: public, scientific, pedagogical, educational and professional. The main acts governing the rules under which they function are the Act of 27 June 1997 on the libraries 6 and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Regulation of 29 October 2008 on the way to keep records of library resources. 7 Moreover, every type of library also has its own regulations which specifically define how it should function. In the case of public libraries, the relevant legislation is the Act of 25 October 1991 on organizing and running cultural activity; 8 in the case of scientific libraries the pertinent document is the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Regulation of 12 December 2017 amending regulation on the method and procedure for the inclusion of a library among certain scientific libraries and setting their list. 9 In the case of pedagogical libraries, the pertinent legislation is the Minister of National Education Regulation of 28 February 2013 on the detailed rules of functioning of the public pedagogical libraries 10 and the Minister of National Education and Sport Regulation of 29 April 2003 on the framework statute of the public pedagogical library. 11 Internal documents such as statutes, rules and regulations govern the activity of facilities are. 5 Ibid. 6  Year by year the number of libraries in Poland is decreasing. For comparison, data from nine different years were chosen 12 -1998, 13 2009, 14 2012, 15 2013, 16 2014, 17 2015, 18 2016, 19 2017 20 and 2018. 21

National Library Resource
The term NLR was used for the first time in 1977 during a meeting of the management of the National Library and Jagiellonian Library (16 January). In the course of the meeting there were discussions about planning for the specialization of library resources concerning Polish national culture. After the Ossoliński National Institute joined the project, a document entitled National library resource. General programme and organisation assumptions was prepared. It was 12 In the years 1998, 2009, 2012, 2016 regulations on the National Library Resource were published. The latest one, from 2017, presents no data about the number of libraries. 13 21 October 1977. 22 The NLR was then given the following definition and objectives: the aim of the National Library Resource (NLR) is to collect, comprehensively register, prepare information about and enable access to documents, created by Poles and concerning Poland, which are the basic source of information about the intellectual output of the Poles, the political history of the nation, the history of the national culture and all its domains of activity, the history of raising national awareness [and] the history of Polish contribution to world civilisation. 23 As the main reason for setting up the NLR, Leon Marszałek points to history and mentions the loss or dispersal of: a large number of documents during national uprisings and the period of Partitions, especially after the Third Partition of Poland; major losses resulting from military actions in the First World War and a real disaster that happened to documents during the Second World War; [including] collections, from many libraries on the Polish territory and the libraries of centres of Polish life in exile, which were shaped by history. 24 It was assumed that the NLR should meet certain precise objectives. These were: setting optimal conditions to collect and maintain a collection of published and hand-written documents which were created throughout the history of Poland and also the ones developed outside Poland which have content or form related to the country; maintaining complex documentation (registration, scientific publication) of these collections; creating an optimal model of information about theses collections; improving and extending the process of their sharing; creating a reproductive basis of Polish source documents. 25 Apart from the three facilities already mentioned, the activity of the research team was originally supported by: a group of higher education libraries, the Polish Academy of Sciences, centrally located libraries, scientific associations, museums and archives, public libraries with the richest collections and a group of church libraries. 26 The NLR's activity was intended to be financed from the existing funds from libraries' activity 27 .
The term NLR returned to the public sphere in 1997 when it was used in the Act of 27 June 1997 on the libraries. A year later, pursuant to the Act, the Minister of Art and Culture Regulation of 24 November 1998 on setting the list of libraries whose collections belong to the National Library Resource, defining the structure of the Resource and setting the rules and the scope of its special protection 28 was published. The document defines the following general rules about the structure of the Resource: it should provide optimal conditions to collect and maintain i) prints and manuscripts by Polish 22 For more about the history, creation and initial programme assumptions of the NLR, see: MARSZAŁEK, Leon. National Library Resource [Narodowy Zasób Biblioteczny]. In : Library Review [Przegląd Biblioteczny], No. 4, 1978, p. 423-432. 23 Ibid.,p. 423. 24 Ibid.,p. 426. 25 Ibid.,p. 430. 27 Ibid.,p. 431. 28 Minister of Art and Culture Regulation of 24 November 1998 on setting the list of libraries whose collections belong to the National Library Resource, defining the structure of the Resource and setting the rules and the scope of its special protection [Rozporządzenie Ministra Kultury i Sztuki z dnia 24 listopada 1998 r. w sprawie ustalenia wykazu bibliotek, których zbiory tworzą narodowy zasób biblioteczny, określenia organizacji tego zasobu oraz zasad i zakresu jego szczególnej ochrony], Journal of Laws, No. 146, item 955, accessed 7 January 2019, http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WDU19981460955. authors, ii) polonica 29 stored in Polish libraries and iii) the documentation of polonica held in foreign collections; it should contain complete documentation of existing resources; and it should provide for the special protection and conservation of library resources. Section 5 of the regulation explains the notion of special protection, including preparation of the protection plan, protection against damage under certain conditions, and the restriction of sharing and recording on other media. A National Library Resource Council, which is referred to below, was also appointed for a four-year term.
An Appendix to the Regulation of 24 November 1998 provides a "list of libraries whose collections belong, in full or in part, to the National Library Resource" which contains the names of 55 institutions. 30

Resource.
The Minister of Culture and National Heritage Regulation of 4 July 2012 on the National Library Resource 32 stated that to be included in the NLR, a library resource must satisfy at least one of the following four criteria: historical value, scientific value, cultural value and artistic value. The NLR was divided into seven categories, each of which was subdivided into two price ranges -more or less than the indicated basic amount: drawings (PLN 12,000), engravings (PLN 16,000), photographs (PLN 6,000), manuscripts (PLN 4,000), publications (PLN 6,000), library collections (PLN 16,000) and other library resources (PLN 16,000).
The Regulation introduced an obligation to keep electronic records of the resources that belong to the NLR, which was based on the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Regulation of 29 October 2008 on the way of keeping records of the library resources 33 and specified the rules for drawing up a plan -to be annually updated -on protecting these electronic resources. It also set the exact dates of executing § 4.-6 which covered distinguishing resources, dividing them into categories and keeping electronic records, on 31 December 2017.
However, the document, apart from the above-mentioned details, omits the list of 56 facilities whose collections were previously included in the NLR. The list of institutions at the end of the document indicates only two facilities: the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow and the National Library in Warsaw. Pursuant

National Library Resource Council
The Act of 27 June 1997 established a body known as the National Library Resource Council, which is composed of representatives of nine institutions: the National Library (director -chairman), the Jagiellonian Library, the Library of the Ossoliński National Institute, the National Library  lection of the vice-chairman, duties of the chairman, rules governing the invitation of guests, the formation of working parties, the preparation of programmes of work, the creation of minutes and reports, the tasks of the Council and the unpaid character of participation in the Council. It also covers funds, as well as the technical and administrative infrastructure.

Actual situation
In 2008 -10 years after the first Regulation on the NLR was issued -Renata Piejko carried out research on the achievements with regards to the protection of special resources during these 10 years. The results of her survey, published in the magazine "Library", 45 indicated a number of problems with which libraries deal. Out of 55 surveys sent out, 38 facilities returned them filled in. The survey contained 12 questions, including one open question, about the scope of the institution's collection, methods used for storing and protecting it, and the sharing of resources. The answers indicated that only seven libraries had established NLR commissions, 20 libraries held NLR collections that were specifically secured, and 21 libraries had created a special programme for the protection of their resources. The author concluded that "the National Library Resource [...], requires constant work, efforts and care". 46 Ewa Stachowska-Musiał, who attempted to sum up 10 years of NLR activity, pointed out 47 that there was no top-down coordination of activities related to the Resource in Poland, giving the UK and its "National Preservation Office" as an example of best practice. However, the research carried out by the Central Military Library in Warsaw showed that 84.4% of the investigated libraries 48 provided information about completing works related to selection of NLR collections. During completion, 78.2% took historical value as the basic criterion, while 56.2% developed a plan of protection. Libraries obtained finance for NLR works via their own resources (for as many as 91.2 % of them), from local authorities (for 5.9%) and from subsidies (for only 2.9%). Respondents highlighted problems with premises, as well as financial and personal 49 issues as the most common difficulties.
The librarians discussed the NLR issue several times during training and at conferences. We should mention, among other things, a training for directors of libraries whose collections were 44 The council members in the course of 2016-2020 term [Skład Rady w kadencji 2016-2020], accessed 7 January 2019, http:// www.bn.org,.pl/dla-bibliotekarzy/rada-ds.-narodowego-zasobu-bibliotecznego/sklad-rady-w-kadencji-2016-2020. 45 PIEJKO, Renata. Narodowy Zasób Biblioteczny -doświadczenia dziesięciu lat. In: Biblioteka, No. 12 (21), 2008, p. 117-127. 46 Ibid., p. 126. 47 STACHOWSKA-MUSIAŁ Ewa. National Library Resource -experiences of 10 years [Narodowy Zasób Biblioteczny -koncepcja a realizacja]. In: Librarian [Bibliotekarz], No. 2, 2008, p. 2-6. 48 These were: The Central Military Library, Provincial Library in Kielce, the Main Library of Warsaw University of Technology in Warsaw, the Main Library of AGH University of Science and Technology, the Central Agricultural Library, the Central Library of Geography and Environmental Protection, the Library of the Theatre Museum in Warsaw, the Library of the Castle Museum in Łańcut, the Princes Czartoryski Library, the Provincial and Municipal Public Library in Bydgoszcz and the Jagiellonian Library (ibid., p. 6). 49 Ibid. part of the NLR (Cracow 2001) 50 as well as those organised by Marshall Józef Piłsudski of the Central Military Library in Warsaw under the titles Protection of the National Library Resource: Digitalization and ... what next? (2011) 51 and Protection of the National Library Resource in the times of peace, a crisis and a war (2012). 52 In a text published in 2017, 53 Katarzyna Sikora presented a very important aspect of the NLR's definition and protection. She concluded that actual methods of protecting especially library resources will increase probability of destruction of these components of cultural heritage. 54 The most recent event discussing NLR-related issues was a conference organised by the National Library on 12 October 2017. The subjects of the speeches were related to: NLR history; the storage, protection and creation of the NLR Central Basis, and the application procedure. 55 Materials from the meeting have not yet been published.
At present, collections from nine libraries are included in the NLR. Their participation in the NLR is presented below.
• National Library (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2012). The Statute of the National Library indicates the facility's collections which are included in the NLR: §14. "The collections that are subject to perpetual archiving belong to the National Library Resource," 56 while §9 explains the term of 'perpetual archiving': §9. The library perpetually archives only one copy of both Polish library resources and those that concern Poland but were created abroad. 57 • Jagiellonian Library (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2012). Clause 1(2) of the Jagiellonian Library Rules and Regulations states that "part of its collection belongs to the National Library Resource". 58 Furthermore § 9. defines the resource belonging to the NLR as "The collection of archived copies, which has been in existence since 1969, is subject to perpetual archiving and belongs to the National Library Resource". 59 A detailed document defining the exact resources included in the NLR is Okólnik no. 2, published by the Director of the Jagiellonian Library on 8 November 2000. According to this document, its NLR collections consist of: the collection of manuscripts (in its entirety); the collection of old prints (in its entirety); the collection of drawings, engravings, bookplates and photographs (in its entirety); the collection of prints from the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century [up to 1945]: non-serial prints, series, periodicals and leaflets (in its entirety); Polish prints from the years 1945-1968: non-serial prints, series, periodicals, social life documents, company literature, standards and patents (in its entirety); dedicated resources of Polish prints published since 1969: non-serial prints, series, periodicals, social life documents, company literature, standards and patents; dedicated collection of valuable and rare prints "rara"; the dedicated collection of so-called "underground" documents; foreign polonica (Poland-related) documents published post-1945; and the collection of Polish audiovisual and electronic documents created since 1997. 60 The library has digitized the most valuable and the most damaged of the NLR-included collections as part of the projects "Jagiellonian Digital Library" 61  The National Library collaborates with the Jagiellonian Library on the "Patrimonium" project, which is co-financed as part of the Operational Programme Digital Poland Objective 2.3 "Digital availability and usefulness of public sector information", Subobjective 2.3.2 "Digital access to cultural resources". The aim of the project is to enable access to digital versions of library resources which are treated as valuable and unique Polish cultural heritage. Digitized and accessible cultural resources will come from the collections of the two biggest Polish libraries: the National Library (NL) and the Jagiellonian Library (JL), whose collections, based on the Act and secondary legislations, are included in the National Library Resource due to their unique value and importance. 62 • Elbląg Library of Cyprian Norwid in Elbląg (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2016).
The information about the part of this library's collections included in the NLR and the number of items therein is published both on the library's website, which records "9,022 volumes: manuscripts, incunables (among which 14 volumes are the only copies in Poland) and old prints (sixteenth-eighteenth centuries) 63 and in two documents describing the functioning of the institution: Rules and regulations of enabling access to the collections of the Elbląg library of Cyprian Norwid in Elbląg ( §8) 64 and Organizational rules of the Elbląg Library of Cyprian Norwid in Elbląg. 65 Some of these items are accessible on the Elbląg Digital Library platform in the collection "Historical resources": "Historical resources" of the Elbląg Library is a very valuable collection of incunables, old prints, manuscripts and mainly German periodicals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A substantial collection of Bibles (around 160 editions in different languages), Pastoral Epistles, songs, Gospels, may be used as an invaluable material for research by theologians. Furthermore, the library owns sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Latin writings of Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and the letters of the Popes Pius II, Boniface VIII and Leo I, which are used in studies on the history of Church doctrine. A significant part of the collections is philosophical treaties of the classics of thought: Aristotle, René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Plato, Seneca the Younger, and the works of Euclid, which are fundamental for the modern geometry. Among the books from the eighteenth century or later, there are mainly German publications concerning theory and history of literature, lexicology, linguistics, literature (German classics, translations of Polish works into German), geography, science and history. The collections of musical documents and cartographic resources are unique in terms of source and cognition. The historic resources amount to 57,000 units. 66 • Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Polish Academy of Science in Cracow (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2016).
Based on a decision taken at the meeting of the NLR Council on 18 December 2014, drawings, illustrations and bookplates, manuscripts, parchment diplomas, incunables and old prints were included in the Resource.
• The University Library in Poznań (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2016). Manuscripts of the medieval codices, which are stored in the Manuscripts Workshop [Pracownia Rękopisów] of the Special Collections Department [Oddział Zbiorów Specjalnych], were entered into the NLR register. 67 The rules and regulations state that the reading room is the only place where they can used. 68 • Library of the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2016) The Library of the Ossoliński National Institute gives information about its collections included in the NLR via its electronic catalogue of resources. 69 After choosing Collections/provenances [Kolekcje/proweniencje] from the list of search types [Typ wyszukiwania] and entering "naro-dowy zasób biblioteczny" in the terms [Terminy] field, the user receives information about the number of resources. On 13 January 2017 there were 8,155 items so described.
• Witold Gombrowicz Provincial Public Library in Kielce (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2016) A collection of old prints and books from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which form the Kolekcja Sancygniowska [Sancygniów collection] 70 was included in the NLR.
• Silesian Library in Katowice (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2017) The institution enables access to some of its NLR collections through the Silesian Internet Library of Rare Collections, 71 which is integrated with the Silesian Digital Library. 72 The platform is supposed to contain ultimately 27,000 publications.
• Michał Oczapowski Central Agricultural Library in Warsaw (entry pursuant to the Regulation of 2017) The following collections of the library were entered into the NLR register: old prints (items issued from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries) -824 volumes; polonica from the nineteenth century (items published between 1801 and 1900); the Warsaw collection, comprising 2,173 volumes of monographs and 681 volumes of periodicals from 96 journal titles; the Puławy collection, comprising 6,291 volumes of monographs and 2,013 vol. of periodicals from 196 journal titles. 73

Conclusions
In the year 1998, when the first regulation on the NLR was published, the libraries included in the Resource constituted 0.5% of all the facilities in Poland (58 ÷ 12,500), a proportion which had barely changed in 2009 -0.5% (59 ÷ 12,577). The percentage share had decreased substantially to 0.02% (2 ÷ 10,049) by 2012, when under the new regulation only two facilities were entered onto the NLR list. In 2016, five libraries were added to the NLR, increasing the percentage of libraries included in the Resource to 0.1% (7 out of 9,567 facilities). At present, the list consists of 10 libraries. However, taking into consideration only a slight decrease in the total number of libraries, no noteworthy percentage increase was observed. We should remember that the list from 1998 included 56 units -exceptional for Polish librarianship, history, culture and science -which constituted around 0.45% of the much greater number of libraries (12,500).
It is worth noting that at the end of 2017 a special conference dedicated to the NLR was organised. We can only express our hope that new libraries will submit their applications to enter their collections into the NLR, because it is not possible to think about the National Resource without mentioning the Princes Czartoryski Library, the Kórnik Library or provincial and monastery libraries. One good suggestion for the protection of valuable resources is the idea of creating a National Treasures List, which is included in the Act of 10 July 2015 amending the Act on the monument protection and care and the Act on museums, 74 where section 14a.1 states: the Heritage Treasures List includes movable historical objects of special value for the cultural heritage, which fall into one of the categories described in the section 64.1 based on the decision issued by the minister competent for culture and national heritage protection, ex officio or on the request of the owner of a movable historical object. 75 Due to the movable character of library resources, this section may be also apply to them.