Joanna Radzicka
Cracow Univeristy of Technology - Library

Digitalisation and presentation of national heritage is a global trend. Entering into this trend and fulfilling their mission, libraries use high-quality modern technology to preserve and make accessible their valuable collections. The examples of projects focused on digitalisation and preservation of specific collections of three Krakow libraries is the topic of this paper.

The discussed institutions represent various types of libraries. The Jagiellonian Library is the second largest library in Poland. Serving as a national library, university library and a part of the Polish library system, it plays an important role in protecting national heritage for future generations. The Jagiellonian Library in cooperation with the Polish National Library have started a project Patrimonium provide digital versions of unique Polish cultural heritage. The second presented project is led by the Franciscan Library. It includes digitalization and sharing of the valuable books belonging to the monastery’s co­llection. The third project is EDT – European Technical Heritage. It is led by the Library of the Cracow University of Technology. Its aim is to digitise and make openly accessible historical and contemporary publications in the field of technical sciences in an innovative IT environment.

Special attention will be paid to show general requirements and special tasks completed at individual stages of this project. Described projects present different approaches not only to preservation but also to popularisation of national heritage, that is possible with modern technology. They may serve as well, as studies for similar activities undertaken in future by other libraries.

I am a librarian at the Information Services Department in the Library at the CUT in Poland. At my work I focus on bibliometrics, e-learning, public relation and searching scientific information for researchers. I graduated from Jagiellonian University with a degree in Information Science and Librarianship in 2005. I also did a post-graduate diploma courses in „Virtualization of the Educational Space“ in 2015.