Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of the Masovian Voivodeship

Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of the Masovian Voivodeship (Polish: Biblioteka Publiczna m.st. Warszawy – Biblioteka Główna Województwa Mazowieckiego) is a public library serving as the main city public library of Warsaw, as well as of the Masovian Voivodeship, and one of the largest in Poland. It is known colloquially as Koszykowa Library (Polish: Biblioteka na Koszykowej) after Koszykowa Street on which it is located.[1]

Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of the Masovian Voivodeship
Biblioteka Publiczna m.st. Warszawy – Biblioteka Główna Województwa Mazowieckiego
52.222307°N 21.01853°E / 52.222307; 21.01853
LocationWarsaw, Poland
TypePublic library
Established1907 (1907)
Collection
Size1 500 000
Other information
DirectorMichał Strąk
Websitewww.koszykowa.pl

History

The library was founded in 1907 by the Public Library Society, which was formed by foremost Polish educators and intelligentsia, such as Stanisław Leszczyński, Samuel Dickstein, Ludwik Krzywicki and Stefan Żeromski. Since 1914, the library had been located on Koszykowa Street in a building originally designed by Jan Fryderyk Heurich. sponsored by the prominent Kierbedź family.[2]

At that time the institution was led by Faustyn Czerwijowski, the first chairman of the library, who served in this position till 1937. Before the outbreak of World War II the library already contained 500,000 book volumes. In January 1945 it was set ablaze by retreating Nazi German soldiers. As a result, 300,000 books were destroyed, another 100,000 were looted.[3] Koszykowa Library was reconstructed after the war and further extended during the 1950s and 1960s to create additional reading rooms in the adjoining buildings.[4] It underwent a major renovation in 2015.[4] As of 2021, the library contains around 1.5 million volumes.[5]

  • Stanisławów Kierbedziów Reading Room in 2010 prior to renovation
    Stanisławów Kierbedziów Reading Room in 2010 prior to renovation
  • Faustyn Czerwijowski Reading Room following the 2015 renovation (photograph from 2020)
    Faustyn Czerwijowski Reading Room following the 2015 renovation (photograph from 2020)
  • Building interior in 2022
    Building interior in 2022
  • Faustyn Czerwijowski Reading Room with stacks in 2022
    Faustyn Czerwijowski Reading Room with stacks in 2022

See also

References
  1. "Biblioteka teraz i kiedyś" [The library today and in the past]. Biblioteka Publiczna m. st. Warszawy Biblioteka Główna Województwa Mazowieckiego (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-07-24. The library, commonly known as the 'Biblioteka na Koszykowej' is one of the largest and oldest public libraries in Poland.
  2. Kobierska-Maciuszko, Ewa (2015). "Koszykowa– nowy gmach, stara biblioteka– czy to się uda?". Bibliotekarz. Warszawa: Stowarzyszenie Bibliotekarzy Polskich. 11: 4–10.
  3. Biblioteka na Koszykowej: O nas at the Wayback Machine (archived August 15, 2010)
  4. Kobierska-Maciuszko, Ewa (2017-10-05). "New library buildings in Poland. The last 25 years (1990-2015)". Przegląd Biblioteczny. 85 (Special): 106–118. doi:10.36702/pb.857. ISSN 2545-2487.
  5. "Awaria w warszawskiej bibliotece publicznej. Wypożyczalnia nieczynna do odwołania. "Księgozbiór jest bezpieczny"". Warszawa Nasze Miasto (in Polish). 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2023-07-24.

Further reading
  • Kazimiera Maleczyńska, Książki i biblioteki w Polsce okresu zaborów, Książki o książce, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1987.
  • Ewa Popławska-Bukało: Siedziba Biblioteki Publicznej m.st. Warszawy - Dzieje i architektura gmachu, Warszawa 2006.
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