University of Warsaw University of Warsaw LibraryLibrary

Warsaw 2009

LocationLocation

The University of Warsaw Library is situated in Powiśle district, in the vicinity of the Old Town, The Royal Route (Krakowskie Przedmieście street),The Campus of the University and Vistula river.

The University of Warsaw Library was founded in 1816.

It is the main library of the University and one of the three largest collections of scholarly books in Poland.

Collection: 2 937 104 items (end of 2008), including:

• books: 1 870 542 vol.

• journals: 676 477 vol.

• special collections (early imprints, manuscripts, graphics, music collection, maps, ephemera): 390 085 items

Old Library

New Library

Building

The present building designed by Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski was opened in 1999. It consists of two parts:

• front crescent-shape part assigned for commercial purposes (cafes, shops, offices)

• main building (4 storeys and 2 underground levels). Both parts connects a passage.

Total surface: 60 000 m 2

Library’s surface: 40 000 m 2

The Library hosts cultural and educational events.

The building is decorated with 8 copper boards.

Six of them bear texts in old-Polish,

old-Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Sanskrit.Two are covered with mathematical formulas and a part of music score by Karol

Szymanowski

The main entrance is decorated with a huge open book with an inscription in Latin

HINC OMNIA (‘from here everything’).

Steps lead to four columns bearing statues of eminent Polish philosophers from Lvov-Warsaw School.

Behind the columns

opens a library-space .

Ground level:

Hall, cloakrooms, exhibition hall, restaurant, storage, Acquisition Department, Preservation and Conservation Department.

Level 1:

Reference Desk, catalogues (online and paper catalogues), Open Stacks, Lending Desk, Interlibrary Loan, Information and Public Service Department, Technical Services Department, NUKAT Center.

Reference Desk

Catalogue hall

Level 2 :

Open Stacks, Textbook Collection, Reading Room, Current Periodicals and Microforms Reading Room, Serials Department, Computer Department, NUKAT Center, Administration Unit.

Level 3 :

Special Collection Rooms, Austrian Library (in cooperation with the Austrian Forum of Culture).

Main Reading Room

Open Stacks

There are 1000 seats, about 110 computers giving access to:

• online catalogue• Internet and faculty

libraries catalogues• MS Office 2000

There are also computers and other equipment (e.g. text magnifiers) for blind and disabled persons.

CollectionThe collection is located in:

• closed compact storage

• open stacks (ca 393 708 vol. – books 341 826; journals 51 882 vol.)

• special collection rooms

Storage

Open stacks

Open Stacks

The open stacks are organized according to the Library of Congress Classification system and the open stacks surface is divided in eight subject-areas.

Each book is properly marked with a label and described with a call number.

Subject areasLevel 1

• Language. Literature

• Philosophy. Psychology. Religion. Education

• History

• Geography. Mathematical, Natural and Applied Sciences

Level 2

• Law. Political Science

• Social Science. Anthropology

• General works. Library Science

• Music. Architecture. Fine Arts

Level 3

• Special Collection rooms

Catalogues1. Computer catalogue

• records of books from UWL and faculty libraries. Most records are for books acquired after 1994.

• early books from 15th cent. and partly from 16th cent. (letters A – E)

• some Ephemera

• periodicals

2. Card catalogues

• alphabetic – records of books acquired between 1801 and 1997

• subject catalogue of books

• periodicals

Catalogue hall

Online catalogue

Electronic resources

E-Resources

• over 48 000 subscribed journals in electronic version

e-bUW

• digital library of books and documents unprotected by copyright; documents published by the University staff

• digital collection of Polish periodicals (full

texts)e-bUW

E-resources

Readers

In 2008 :

• number of patron-accounts – 122 200 (57,9 % student and UW staff accounts)

• 1 134 765 entries

• on average 3400 entries per day

• 557 531 volumes

checked-out

• 639 131 – full texts taken from e-resources

Tea pavilionA donation from Kyoei Steel Company for the Oriental Studies Department is a unique object in Poland and a second one of the type in Europe (besides England). Chashitsu– designed according to traditional art of building from original Japanese materials. It consists of:

• two ceremonial rooms (hiroma and koma)

• backroom (mizuya)

• garden (roji): outer stone garden (soto roji) and internal part (uchi roji).

Garden

The garden has two parts: a lower (15 000 m 2 surface) and an upper part (2000 m 2).

It is one of the largest roof gardens in Europe.

The garden is divided into several colour-areas (golden, silver, purple, green).

Lower Garden

Roof-garden

Colours of the garden

The garden was opened in 2002. It is open to all visitors, admission free.

Cascades, streams, ponds, variety of plants and most of all the roof part with bridges, pergolas and hidden places are a big tourist attraction in Warsaw.

From the roof visitors admire picturesque sight of the Old Town, the center of the city and eastern bank of the Vistula river.

The Library from the bird’s eye-view