What is National Library of Poland?
The '''National Library''' ([[Polish language|Polish]]: ''Biblioteka Narodowa'') is the central [[Poland|Polish]] library. It is managed by the [[Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland]]. The library collects books, journals, electronic and audiovisual publications published in the territory of Poland. It also collects materials related with polish culture published abroad. It is the most important humanities research library. It is also the main archive of Polish writing and the state centre of bibliographic information about books. The role of gathered collections is great in case of any scientific activity. It is an important methodological center for other Polish libraries. A Copy of every book published in Poland is placed in this library. == Organizational structure == There are three general sections: * The Library * The Bibliographic Institute of the National Library * The Book and Readership Institute == History == The national library of Poland was created in 18th century. Initially, it was called the Załuski Library. First resources of library were the collections of [[John III Sobieski]]. Later, this collection was confiscated by Russian troops and placed in [[Imperial Public Library]]. When Poland regained her independence in 1918, there was no central institution to serve in the capacity of a national library. Recreation of National Library of Poland was made on 24 February 1928, by the decree of president [[Ignacy Mościcki]]. It was opened in 1930 and initially had 200 thousand volumes. Its first Director General was Stefan Demby. In 1934, the Director has been changed. [[Stefan Vrtel-Wierczyński]] became the new Director. == Collections == Today the collections of the National Library are one of the largest in the country. There are 7,900,000 volumes (2004) held in the library in total. Among them, there are 160,000 objects printed before [[1801]], over 26,000 [[manuscript]]s (including 6,887 music manuscripts), over 114,000 music prints and 400,000 drawings.