Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeènnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER

NATIONAL PROGRESS REPORT OF POLAND 1988-1990

Books important from the point of view of cartographic in formation
The basis for the modernization of cartographic description in Polish collection, will be the adaptation of ISBD(CM) -Normalized International Bibliographical Description for Cartographic Documents (Polish translation of the English original). It was finished about a year ago and now is given to the libraries for practice and correction. This is translated by the bead of the Cartographic Department of the Jagiellonian Library -Edward Schnayder. This is done in cooperation with the National Library in Warsaw and wil1 be published after some time as the Polish standard.

Organization of the Central data base for old maps
The project was given by prof. Ewa Krzywicka-Blum from Wroclaw and published in 'Polish Cartographical Review' (Polski Przeglad Kartograficzny, vol. 20, 1988, no 1, pp.19-21). This is a project of organization of the Central data base for old maps, mainly manuscripts from archives and the numerical transformation of graphical pictures of these maps on the basis of uniform systems of coordinates. The author is discussing the cycles of transformation and general methods.

Mapcuratorship
Curators of Polish university libraries as well as archives and libraries of the Polish Academy of Sciences attend conferences organized under the auspices of Polish Geographical Societies and the Polish Academy of Sciences. It was the 13th Conference of Historians of Polish Cartography (organized in Cieplice Slaskie in October, 1989) where the subject of history of cartography of the Sudety mountains. was discussed and the 18th General Assembly of Polish Geographical Society in Gdansk, where the theme was 'Application of old maps in cartographical works' (September 1989). Every conference is a place for discussion and making decisions for the future of libraries.

Education of mapcuratorship
The Cartography Department of the Jagiellonian Library trains the librarians for institute libraries and every institution which needs it. Every year Edward Schnayder or I myself lead the group of our librarians, introducing them into the rules of cataloguing. Personally I have taught a group postgraduate students from the Department of Librarianship of the Jagiellonian University during one year. (The programme included the identification of old maps, rules for cataloguing and some general problems on the history of cartography). I am pleased to announce also, that our journal 'The Library Review' (Przeglad Biblioteczny), the main periodical journal in that discipline in my country, offered to publish announcements of the Groupe des Cartothécaires of LIBER. To start with they published my report of the last conference in Uppsala. I hope also to publish the report of our conference in Paris.

Finally -strictly about the plans and prospects of the Department of Cartography at the Jagiellonian Library, concerning the computerization of collections in the long run. Computerization works in our library are carried out by the Unit for the Automation of Information Processes, which is going to store in a computer our old maps of Poland and, what is more important, the maps of Southern Poland, i.e. Galicia (19th century maps). The users postulates show the requirement for the detailed description of the contents of Galicia maps. Details are needed by the research workers studying political and economic history of Galicia and Poland, as well as those studying the cultural values of this region and the changes of geographic environment in southern Poland. So far we can only boast of loading the computer with the contents of the maps of Cracow, old and new. The data are stored in the computer unit at the city Council and are used for town planning works, mainly connected with the renovation of the historic part of the city centre.

Jadwiga Bzinkowska, Biblioteka Jagiellonska