Shared European Heritage

16th – 18th century prints from the collections of the University Library of Wrocław, the National Library, Pomeranian Library in Szczecin, and Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Catalog of Microfilms

Integrated database cumulated and edited at the University Library of Wrocław

Prints were cataloged and microfilmed thanks to the financial support of the Foundation for the Polish-German Cooperation with the means of the Federal Republic of Germany, and thanks to the Foundation Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, within the frames of the project called “Shared European Heritage”.

This catalog is the result of the project, realized in Polish libraries, “Shared European Heritage. Better Access to Prints from Polish-German Cultural Borderlands in the Collections of Polish Libraries”, that has been launched in 1992 by the Foundation Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, financed mainly with the means of the Foundation for the Polish-German Cooperation.

The goal of the project was to microfilm and to create a computer database including records covering 16th – 18th century prints published within the territory of Silesia, Pomerania, and Eastern Prussia. To some extent the project included also prints published in the central Poland, restricting however the scope to language and contents criteria. In the case of publications consisting of physically separate items bound together into one unit, the assumption was made to catalog and microfilm all prints bound together, no matter of their publication place.

The catalog covers collections of four libraries: the National Library in Warsaw, the University Library of Wrocław, Pomeranian Library in Szczecin, and Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The cumulated database provides access to almost 35,000 uniform bibliographic descriptions of microfilms in MARC 21 format (ca. 39,000 item records). Publishing offices from Silesia are predominantly represented in the database: almost 10,000 descriptions of prints published in Wrocław, 1,500 – in Legnica, over 1,000 – in Brzeg, and the same number – in Oleśnica. Prints from Królewiec constitute a rich collection – 3,500. From those published in Pomerania, 3,000 prints had been published in Szczecin, whereas 2,500 in Gdańsk.

Name headings’ selection was based on entries derived from national bibliographies. Publication place names, now within the territory of Poland, are given in Polish, whereas the remaining names – in the form used in the country of publication. However, there are three exceptions from this rule – Królewiec, Wilno and Lwów – to comply with the long tradition of their use in Polish libraries.          

Catalog description contains basic bibliographic data covering microfilmed print, i.e., author, title, imprint (place of publication, distribution, etc., name of publisher, distributor, etc., date of publication, distribution, etc.), and microfilm holdings information, as well as its physical description (library, kind of film, number of rolls, frames). One can search the database via 9 indexes: name [osobowy], corporate bodies [korporatywny], title [tytułowy], publication/printing place [miejsc_wyd.], publication date [chronol.], microfilm call number [sygnatur], microfilm number [nr_mikrof.], library [bibliotek], and words in titles [słów_w_tyt.]. Name index includes name headings of authors and of the other authors of the book (e.g. printer, distributor, translator). Library index can provide access to descriptions of microfilms preserved in a particular library.

The University Library of Wrocław – over 17,000 microfilms

The National Library in Warsaw – 14,500 microfilms

Pomeranian Library in Szczecin – 2,500 microfilms

Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences – 2,500 microfilms

Any remarks relating to bibliographic descriptions should be directed to: The University Library of Wrocław, Division of Early Printed Books, Processing Section, Św. Jadwigi 3\4, 50-266 Wrocław, Poland, tel.: (+48 – 71) 375 2405m e-mail: karlak@bu.uni.wroc.pl

Requests pertaining to the access of microfilms should be directed to libraries that preserve them.

Note! While searching the database we recommend the use of Internet Explorer browser , with changed View options [View/Encoding/Central European (Windows)], otherwise letters with diacritical marks shall not display correctly.


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