Special Collections and Local Studies Reading Room

Special Collections Department

Room 152; tel. 61 829 3828

e-mail: czyt@amu.edu.pl

Staff:
Robert Szmytkowski, tel. 61 829 3828

The Special Collections Department aims to collect, organise and make available materials from its individual study rooms in the Special Collections Reading Room, i.e. manuscripts, incunabula, old prints, historic iconography, maps and atlases, handwritten musical scores, masonic documents and social life documents as well as books published in the Wielkopolska region (Greater Poland) until 1953 included in the so-called National Library Book Resources (NZB).

Since 2016 the reference book collection in the Special Collections and Local Studies Reading Room has been expanded to include books, periodicals, pamphlets and brochures that relate to the history of Poznań and the region within its historical boundaries.

National Library Resources (Polish: Narodowy Zasób Biblioteczny – NZB) comprises of 45 medieval manuscript codices that, following the decision of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage taken in 2016, have been listed as items of the national library resources. In 2013, all the selected items were digitised and are now available in digital form at Wielkopolska Digital Library web-site listed as the “Poznan University Library Medieval Manuscripts (also available to browse on Europeana). The codices are made available exclusively for research after submitting a request in the Manuscript Study Room.

Local Studies Library Resources (Polish: Regionalny Zasób Biblioteczny – RZB) Include books and serials as well as documents of social life published regionally, or within the historical boundaries of Greater Poland, until 1953 inclusive, and a number of selected other library collections that originated in the region. The decision to separate the collections form the general library holdings was imposed by the need of their special care and particular requirements for their sharing resulting from the deposit copy obligations of the Library to collect all publications published in the region thus documenting the region’s academic, literary and artistic output.

Materials marked with the RZB sign are kept in special separate stack room and can be accessed only in the Special Collections and Local Studies Reading Room

The book collection available in the Reading Room is arranged according to subjects (history and politics, cities and villages, economic issues, education and culture, music, cinema, theatre, arts, iconography, churches and religious orders, and bibliographical dictionaries).

The Special Collections and Local Studies Reading Room and Local Studies Reading Room houses reference material pertinent to the history of Jewish heritage in Poland, books on Judaism and Jewish traditions, in particular titles that relate to Jewish culture in Poland and those that explore Holocaust-related themes.

In the reading room you will find:

• a quiet and inspiring place to study (12 seats),
• prompt delivery of books from the stacks and study rooms,
• free access to the reference collection,
• access to the collections of the specialist study rooms (i.e., manuscripts, old prints and rare books, iconographical material, maps and atlases, musical scores, Masonic documents and social life documents) and the opportunity to consult specialist library staff within the working hours of the reading room,
• audio-visual facilities offering appropriate equipment for presentations (overhead projector and screen), allowing researchers and students to conduct lectures and talks,
• continuously renewed and updated book stock with new book purchases
  professional help and advice for your research