The role and function of the National Library of Poland within the Polish library system
The aim of the workshop is to familiarize participants with the role and function of the National Library of Poland within the Polish system of libraries, with particular focus on legal deposit legislation. Basic information regarding the legal basis and scope of the National Library’s function will be presented. Workshop participants will be introduced to the most vital services of the National Library, including digital services, as well as its leadership role in country-wide initiatives aimed at the development of librarianship in Poland.
LECTURER
dr Maciej Szablewski
Dr. Maciej Szablewski has been employed by the National Library of Poland since 2007, initially at the POLONA National Digital Library Department. In 2013 he advanced to the position of Research Associate, first in the Library, Information and Documentation Science Department and then in the Laboratory of Library Science within the Book and Readership Institute. From 2015 to 2017 he directed the Book Studies Collection Department, where his responsibilities included developing the reference collection for the Załuski Reading Room.
In 2017 he became the vice-head, and in 2018 the head of the Committee entrusted with safeguarding the Treasury of the National Library of Poland. From 2022 he headed the National Library’s Acquisitions Committee.
Starting in 2013, together with Poland’s Educational Research Institute, Dr. Szablewski coordinated work on designing the National Professional Qualifications Framework for library professionals. In January 2019, as part of work on behalf of the National Advisory Council on Libraries, he became member of the task force responsible for shaping the curricula of Library and Information Science study programs at higher education institutions. Since 2023, also on behalf of the National Advisory Council on Libraries, he is part of another task force, which aims to prepare the graduates of Library and Information Science programs for employment within the library field.
Dr. Szablewski is the author of the monograph entitled Dzieje mikrofilmowania przez Bibliotekę Narodową (The History of Microfilming at the National Library of Poland), as well as eleven other scholarly publications. He has coedited four volumes of the yearly Polish Bibliography of Book Studies (Polska Bibliografia Bibliologiczna) and authored the National Library’s Yearly Report (Sprawozdanie Biblioteki Narodowej) for 2021 and 2022.
During the second semester of the 2022/2023 academic year, Dr. Szablewski taught a class on the subject of library circulation and access services to students of Library Science at the Historical Studies Faculty of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.