State-of-the-art system at the Library of the University of Wrocław
The Library of the University of Wrocław just implemented the state-of-the-art Alma system and began co-cataloguing with the National Library of Poland. The cooperation within the nationwide librarian network, made possible due to unified rules of cataloguing, benefits both librarians, who may now manage the collections more efficiently, and readers, who gain broader, quicker and more transparent access to the information.
The Library of the University of Wrocław, along with 32 other specialised libraries, is part of a unified library-informational system of the UWr. The resources and services provided by the library are used not only by university students and researchers but also, thanks to the function of a public library, by primary and secondary school students, those who seek knowledge, and cultural institutions, as well as regional, national and foreign researchers.
The history of the UWr Library dates back to 1811–1815. During these years, the collections of two major libraries, Wrocław’s Leopoldina and Frankfurt’s Viadrina, have been combined along with the resources of numerous secularised Silesian monastic libraries. The rich collections of the Library were largely destroyed during the Second World War. Restoring them was possible thanks to the former Municipal Public Library in Wrocław donating its collections, as well as by combining them with incomplete collections of libraries such as the Piastowska Library in Brzeg, the Milich Library in Zgorzelec, the library of the Church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul in Legnica and fragments of the preserved provincial Silesian libraries.
Nowadays, the Library is the largest research library in the Lower Silesia region, gathering books from all fields of knowledge, with a special focus on humanities and social sciences and works that are exemplary or encyclopaedic to these fields.
The pride of the Library are its special collections. The library has the largest in Poland and one of the largest in Europe collections of old print books — 300,000 copies, including 3000 copies of incunables (second-largest collection in Poland). The Library also has in its possession a significant collection of about 3000 copies of illuminated medieval manuscripts, as well as wonderful music and cartographic prints and iconographic works. The Silesian-Lusatian collection, which consists of books and journals published both before and after 1945 (Wratislaviana being the most valuable one of them, as these prints pertained to Wrocław), is also a crucial part of the library’s resources.
Due to their rareness and highly valuable contents, the collections of the Library were an important addition to the catalogues of the National Library of Poland, granting them access to oftentimes unique scientific, cultural or historical materials.
As a result of implementing the system in numerous libraries, including the Library, the main goal of co-cataloguing in real time in accordance with the cataloguing regulations (using National Library Descriptors) is now possible on a much wider scale. Thanks to the new system, the resources of the search engine of the National Library (katalogi.bn.org.pl) now include the catalogues of: the National Library, the Jagiellonian Library (including the faculty and institute libraries of the Jagiellonian University); academic libraries including those of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, the Bronisław Czech University of Physical Education in Kraków, Gdynia Maritime University, the libraries of the Fahrenheit Universities (including the University of Gdańsk), the University of Warsaw Library; regional public libraries in Olsztyn, Lublin, Wrocław, Szczecin, Łódź and Kielce, as well as municipal libraries in Elbląg, Gdynia and Wrocław. In total, the Union Catalogue is created by 153 libraries that implemented the Integrated Resource Management System for Libraries during 2022–2025 as part of the National Reading Development Programme 2.0 or covered the cost on their own. The number of libraries which are part of the Union Catalogue of the National Library is now close to 70 million items.
The National Library of Poland, as the organisation responsible for implementing Priority 1 Intervention Direction 1.2. Building a nationwide network of libraries through the introduction of an integrated library resources management system as part of the “National Reading Development Programme 2.0 for the years 2021–2025”, will cover the cost of maintaining the system.
We encourage all to discover the richness of Polish written culture available in the Union Catalogue at https://katalogi.bn.org.pl.
Translated by Aleksandra Wysoczańska (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Date of publication: 22.09.2025
Added by: M.J.
