History - The Cracow University of Technology Library

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History

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Genesis

The beginning of the Cracow University of Technology (CUT) is dated on the 5th of October, 1945, when  the Minister of Education agreed to establish three autonomous Politechnic Faculties within the Academy of Mining. Further legislations and the law regulation led to legalization of the Faculties on the 3rd February, 1947. However, the current name and entire independence the Cracow University of Technology gained in 1954.

The first Politechnic Faculties’ building was located at 3 Maja Av. (called ”Oleandry”). It was also an office for the vice-rector prof. Izydor Stella-Sawicki, who not only played an important role to create the Politechnic Faculties in Cracow, but also to set up a scientific library. In 1947, the Faculties were moved to the campus in the historic buildings at Warszawska St. This location has also started being a place for the Library since 1949. The Library was established together with the University under the act of the Minister of Education. Responding to the growth of University’s staff and students information needs, the director of the Library established  the Information Services Department in 1963. A few years later, the Library received an exhibition pavilion. Adjusted to the new functions, pavilion has started being a workplace for the Library’s Journals Reading Room, Information Services Department, Reading Room for Researchers, Serials Department and journals’ closed stocks. Trying to meet students’ expectations, the Library opened a branch (DS-4) at students’ dormitory area, situated at 9 Skarżyńskiego St. in 1978. What is more, because of the University development, the Library established the second branch at the campus in Czyżyny in 2003, at 37 Jana Pawła II Av.

Collection

At the beginning, the library owned only a small collection of the scientific books from the personal collection of prof. Stella-Sawicki. He was a person who was aware of the importance of access to a wide range of handbooks and tried hard to possess those books for the Library. Initially, the Library's book collection was created by obtaining materials from the repositories of collections secured by the Ministry of Education in Bytom, Katowice and Wroclaw, from duplicates of the Jagiellonian Library, and then through the acquisition or gifts.
The oldest books of the Library collection come from the 17th century and are related to architecture. This was probably due to the fact that the Faculty of Architecture, as the first of CUT department, received 3 000 of volumes in 1945. The Library also possessed books from the Evening School of Engineering and Scientific Academic Circles, what significantly enlarged its collection.
The Library can boast many valuable and rare documents and graphics which are available online in the CUT Repository (new window). An example is the graphic of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, drawn in detail – „La Basilica di San Marco in Venezia esposta nei suoi musaici storici, ornamenti scolptiti e vedute architettoniche" (new window), a book from the first half of the 18th century about the jewels of the capital city of Krakow „Klejnoty stołecznego Miasta Krakowa albo Kościoły, y co w nich jest widzenia godnego y znacznego przez Piotra Hiacynta Pruszcza, krótko opisane" (new window) and an item from the 19th century about the ornamentation of Wawel Cathedral – „Album of ornaments from the Sigismund Chapel" (new window). The Library also has valuable prints, including „Entwürfe zu Kirchen, Pfarr- und Schulhäusern" from 1862, "Monuments of the Artistic Industry in Poland" from 1891, and "Denkmaler deutscher Renaissance" from 1884.


The Library was headed by:

  • 1945-1948 - Prof. Izydor Stella-Sawicki, vice-rector – the organizer of the Politechnic Faculties at the Academy of Mining,
  • 1st October, 1947 - 31st May, 1953 - Stanisław Przybylski MSc, from 1950 – the acting head of Library;  he was the first librarian of the CUT Library,
  • 1st June, 1952 - 31st December, 1956 - Irena Sieniuc MA, from 1st August, 1953 - the head of Library, initially the acting head of the CUT Library,
  • 1st January, 1957 - 31st August, 1961 -  Mieczysław Tobiasz PhD, initially the executive Librarian; from 1960  the first director of the Library,
  • 1st September, 1961 - 31st January, 1983 -  Józef Czerni PhD, the director of the Library
  • 1st February, 1982 - 30th September, 1991 - Walentyna Szarek MA, the director of the Library
  • 1st Ocotber, 1991 - 14th June, 1992 - Krystyna Ramza MA, the director of the Library
  • 15th June, 1992 - 30th August, 1999 - Marek Nahotko MA, the director of the Library
  • 1st September, 1999 - Marek M. Górski MA, the acting director of the Library, from 1st July, 2001 - the director of the Library

The beginnings of automation

The Cracow University of Technology Library has a long-standing tradition of automation work. At the beginning of the 1970s (1972-1974), there was initiated scientific and research work on the construction of the Automated University Library of Scientific Information (ZUBIN) Project. The second initiative, undertaken by the Library in 1975, was the KRAKUS project. The authors of the project were: the head of the CUT Library Józef Czerni PhD with a team of CUT employees for automation and librarians from the six Cracow’s libraries. Due to the lack of financial resources, work on the construction of this system was stopped at the stage of creating the Central Catalogue of Compact Forms (KCDZ) and the technical project SAUZ (Automatic Collection of Access System). Within the KRAKUS project, there  was prepared the Central Catalogue of Foreign Journals (KCCZ). This database was fully implemented and is maintained by the Jagiellonian Library nowadays.
Based on the experience gained during the work on the KRAKUS project, the CUT Library continued working on the automation of serials control. In the 1980s, there was developed a computer system for controlling journals collected in the Library. This action was carried out in a close cooperation with other libraries from technical universities – especially with the Main Library of the Wrocław University of Technology. As a result, a computer programme for the development of journals was created. The period between 1991-1992 was intended for testing and implementation of the programme.

Library system

Over time, native computer systems did not meet users and librarians’ expectations. Many libraries have begun exploring the Internet by searching for a software which could properly support the work of libraries. The Library of Cracow University of Technology did not lag behind in this search. After the annual testing period, the Library chose TINLIB the British integrated library system and implemented it in 1994. The Library was using TINLIB till 2014. The system was changed for the new one, KOHA, since the 1st of April, 2014. KOHA (new window) is a free of charge system, under the GPL licences (General Public License). The most important changes were the introduction of new search options, the possibility to remember items found in the clipboard and in private lists, saving search history, a larger selection of order pickup locations, more useful information when you log into your account.

E-library

The CUT Library established the ‘Bibliography of CUT Staff Publications (new window)’ database in 1991 that along with the OPAC (Library’s catalogue) have been available on the Internet from the beginning of the 90s. Further works enabled the Library to position its website on the Internet in 1997 and to implement an automated loan system two years later. In June 1999, the card catalogue was closed. However, its electronic version is still available on the Library webpage.
Trying to meet new users’ expectations, the CUT Library established the Digital Library in 2006. It was providing an access to full-text documents, including: CUT doctoral dissertations, educational materials, CUT journals, monographs and special collections.
Between 2009-2012, the Library implemented the Technical Sciences Exchange and Academic Publications Sharing Integrated System (SUW). The aim of the project was to enable the CUT staff and students to submit, archive and self-archive scientific publications and educational materials. One of the part of SUW was the Repository of the Cracow University of Technology. It was a digital archive of scientific documents and other resources related to the CUT activity. The project was maintained until 2017.
Moreover, from the 1st of August 2016, the EDT-European Technical Heritage project has been implemented by Cracow University of Technology (the beneficiary of the project) and AGH University of Science and Technology (the partner) under the Digital Poland Operational Programme, Sub-measure 2.3.1 ‘Digital access to public sector information from administrative sources and scientific resources’. The main goal of the project is to give an access to digital version of the oldest editions of historic documents collected by the CUT Library and journals from the 19th and 20th century from the AGH collections. And also the aim of this project is to make this collection open and free with the ability to use it again.
 

Conferences

The CUT Library organised scientific conferences:

Promotion

The CUT Library has taken part in the annual National Library Week campaign since 2006. During this Week, the Library organises training courses, activities to promote projects carried out in the Library, scientific book exhibitions, meetings with retired employees of the Library and also picnic for students. The CUT Library participates in the Bookcrossing campaign and in the "Szlachetna Paczka" charity action as well. The Library has its own profiles on Facebook (nowe okno) (since 2010) and on Instagram (nowe okno)(since 2018). To find out more, please visit us there.