Library cooperation
To ensure effectiveness of its services, conservation and protection of its collections, staff training and professional development, Wroclaw University Library (WUL) cooperates with departmental libraries working within university library-information system, many local, national and international libraries as well as schools of library and information science. It also belongs to many professional societies and organizations. In recent years, following the evolution of computer science and information processing techniques, all the libraries (including Wroclaw University Library), were actively developing their information services, joining in consortia and establishing new projects aimed at creating the common basis, central catalogs and data exchange. To fully implement its aims Wroclaw University Library cooperates with many partners on multiple levels:
Local level
Cooperation on local level is accomplish with collaboration with departmental libraries working within university library-information system – on interuniversity level, as well as with other libraries in Wroclaw and Lower Silesia region. It’s main purpose is to improve services to the academic and general public. This cooperation runs through bilateral integration, experience exchange and staff internships.
Cooperation with departmental libraries of UoW includes: implementation of Virtua system by departmental libraries, creation of departmental libraries periodical catalog, maintainance of database containing publications of University Wrocław employees (with collaboration of other entities of UoW).
From 2006 online catalog of WUL is also available in the multi-search engine "FIDKAR of Wroclaw Scientific Libraries" that runs on Papal Faculty of Theology’s server. This search-engine includes catalogs and databases of five Wroclaw’s higher education institutions: University of Wrocław, Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, University School of Physical Education in Wrocław, Papal Faculty of Theology and Lower Silesia Pedagogic Library.
Wroclaw University Library helps in creating the Environmental Catalog of Foreign Journals to which (since 1991) twenty two libraries of the city of Wroclaw subscribe. It was accessible via Wrocław Technical University Library web server. Together with four other academic libraries (Wrocław University of Technology Library, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences Library, Medical University of Wroclaw Library, Wrocław University of Economics Library) it participated in Environmental System of Database Access, which gave online access to the following databases: Current Contents (four subject series), Science Citation Index and Chemical Abstracts (sources from years 1999-2004).
Wroclaw University Library has signed up a cooperation agreement with other academic libraries of the city of Wroclaw (Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław University of Economics, Medical University of Wroclaw, University of Music, Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, University School of Physical Education in Wrocław, Academy of Theater Arts, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Land Forces Military Academy). It is to coordinate activities of academic libraries to give the public an easy and free access to their collections. This cooperation on the basis of reciprocity allows students of academic libraries of the city of Wroclaw to use the collections of any other academic library in Wroclaw.
More over, every year Wroclaw University Library signs agreements with other institutions of higher education (e.g. Witelon University of Applied Sciences in Legnica) and with private schools to prolong possibility of lending books at WUL for their students.
Local cooperation includes also transfers of books from legal deposit which are not included in Wroclaw University Library holdings to other libraries in the region.
Cooperation with Ossolineum Library focuses mainly on exchange of experience on VTLS/VIRTUA computer system, exploiting and creating a central online NUKAT catalog. Both libraries exchange their experience in other areas, such as preservation of special collections.
Wroclaw University Library and Lower Silesia Public Library have common interest in collecting the regional literature. On the basis of bilateral agreement Wroclaw University Library creates a database of the resources on social life.
All academic libraries of the city of Wroclaw cooperate in organizing courses for people promoted to the rank of a custodian.
Wroclaw University Library cooperates also with the Institute of Information and Media Sciences; this cooperation includes:
- organizing training sessions and internships for the students by the Library,
- active participation of the Library employees in didactical activities of the Institute,
- access to the collections and reading rooms for the education purposes of the Institute,
- participation of the Library staff in conferences, lectures and seminars organized by the Institute.
The Library staff are regular participants as lecturers and audience in the sessions of the Librarianship Section of the Educational Society of the city of Wroclaw and work actively for the Wroclaw branch of Polish Librarianship Society.
Projects:
- Online Catalog in Virtua System
- Database "Bibliografia publikacji pracowników Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego"
- Departmental Libraries’ Periodical Catalog
- FIDKAR of Wroclaw Scientific Libraries
- Foreign Journals in Wroclaw and Opole Libraries
- Environmental System of Database Access
National level
Traditional fields of cooperation between libraries include:
- interlibrary loans,
- assistance in creating the central catalogs of the National Library,
- internship programs to improve the professional skills of the staff, that were widen because of development of new information technologies and progressing computerization of libraries, and partnership cooperation has taken new shape – associating in more or less formal consortiums.
From 1993 the Wroclaw University Library belongs to the consortium of Polish libraries that have adopted VTLS (now VIRTUA) system. This cooperation includes:
- preparing bibliographic records' formats for various types of documents,
- preparing training materials,
- exchange of bibliographic records,
- creating and allowing access to databases - authority files and Central Catalog of Journal Titles,
- creating and allowing access to the central national
online catalog NUKAT .
NUKAT – National Central Catalog of Polish scientific libraries – is an effect of cooperation of not only VTLS libraries, but also of the libraries using other integrated systems, such as Aleph, Horizon, Prolib, Virtua.
From 2002 Wroclaw University Library online catalog (OPAC) is available also by simultaneous search engines implemented by Dispersed Catalog of Polish Libraries KARO residing on the Nicolaus Copernicus University Library’s server.
To promote access to international sources of scientific information, databases and online journals Wroclaw University Library joins the consortia that make it easier to negotiate prices and licenses, as well as generate non-budget resources allowing access to professionally prepared online services, such as EBSCO, Elsevier, Springer etc.
From 2000 Wroclaw University Library belongs to the National Chemical Abstracts Consortia, associating national scientific institutions that use the Chemical Abstracts Database available from the Wrocław University of Technology’s server.
From 2001 Wroclaw University Library participates in quotations index called Polish Humanistic Literature, a project of a consortium led by Silesian University Library.
Another example of the Wroclaw University Library consortium cooperation is the project of protecting the Common European Heritage by making microfilm copies of old prints and journals from the cultural borderlands.
Cooperation of Wroclaw University Library with Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center and usage of dLibra software resulted in creation of Digital Library of Wroclaw University, that is the part of Polish distributed network of digital libraries – PIONIER, that provide access to several thousands digitized items with their metadata’s and advanced information services based on these available objects (e.g. distributed search).
Projects:
- NUKAT
- KARO
- National Consortium Chemical Abstracts
- Polish Humanistic Database
- Common European Heritage
- Digital Library of Wroclaw University
International Level
From 1989 Wroclaw University Library is an institutional member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and from 1963 a member of International Association of Music Libraries (IAML).
From 1997 Wroclaw University Library processes its manuscripts by computer program PIKADO and cooperates with the RISM headquarters in Frankfurt a. Mein in creating International Computer Catalog RISM A/II (accessible online and on CD-ROM).
Wroclaw University Library has signed a long-term agreement on cooperation and staff exchange with the National Library in Prague. In 2003 this cooperation has been widen by participation in the Central East European MASTER project. The aim of the project is to create MANUSCRIPTORIUM Database - a computerized manuscript catalog in the XML language according to the MASTER standards (Manuscript Access through Standard for Electronic Records).
Processing of the Silesian Collections was possible due to the donations from German foundations (Bosch Fund, Volkswagen Fund). In effect of this collaboration, Silesian old prints and journals have been transferred into microfilms and were created publications about light prints and funeral sermons from Old Print Department of Wroclaw University Library.
Wroclaw University Library has close contacts with German libraries in Marburg, Osnabrück, Herne, Munich and Frankfurt (Oder) as well as with Austrian Library in Graz.
Library also cooperates with Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) that includes exchange of experiences and acquisition of new collections for the Library.
In 2006 Wroclaw University Library, with Polish National Library, Jagiellonian Library, Adam Mickiewicz University Library, University of Warsaw Library, Ossolineum Library and Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences applied to become regular members CERL (Consortium of European Research Libraries) - institution responsible for creating common electronic catalog of all books published before 1830, including their copies (microforms and reprints). Created Heritage of the Printed Book Database (HPB) is build up from catalog records sent by member libraries and is maintained by Research Library Group (California), that, inter alia, is administrating catalogs of RLIN.
Since 2008 the Wroclaw University Library has cooperateed with the Library of Friedrich Ebert’s Foundation. As a result of that cooperation inter alia the project of Portal “Wroclaw's laborers' movement till the year 1933" has been accomplished. Its main goal was to digitize and publish in internet German sources available in Wroclaw University Library and in Library of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Projects:
- RISM
- online catalog of manuscripts (MASTER)
- Common European Heritage – catalog of microfilmed old prints (XVI-XVIII cent.)
- recreation of collection from Viadrina University Library (Frankfurt)
- Portal “Wroclaw's laborers' movement till the year 1933"