About the Library

The Library of the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics serves primarily the employees and students of the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics. Its collections (in the Reading Room) and services can also be used by other people.

Rooms of the Library:

· catalogs – 3rd floor, room 3.08;

· the Lending Room – 3rd floor, room 3.06;

· the Reading Room – 4th floor, room 4.01;

· rooms of library personnel preparing the collections – 5th floor, rooms 5.06–5.15;

· scientific laboratory – 5th floor (the entrance through the Reading Room, room 4.01);

· the Computer Reading Room and Current Periodical Reading Room are located on the 3rd floor, room 3.01.

· Storage rooms are located on the 3rd floor, rooms 3.05 and 3.07.

The decision to establish the Library was made at the meeting of the Council of the Faculty of Law on 13th January 1961. The Library’s book collection included books and magazines from Faculty departments libraries that were being closed at that time. The acquired book collections consisted of about 100.000 volumes, but were mostly unprofessionally handled, so they required not only the consolidation of catalogs and collections, but also their rework. A part of the book collection was not organized or recorded in the departments at all. A significant part of the book collection transferred to the Library was again catalogued, inventoried, assigned, and placed in storages. During the consolidation of the collection, a lot of duplicates and redundant prints (over 20.000 volumes) were excluded and sorted. Several manuscripts and old prints were handed over to the University Library (collections at Åšw. Jadwigi 3/4 street).

During almost 50 years of its existence, the Library has developed. The collection was multiplied by domestic purchases, subscriptions, and import of foreign papers. The antiquarian purchases allowed to compliment the collection with Polish legal books from the 19th and 20th century. Active participation in the interlibrary exchange of duplicates caused a further increase in the Library’s resources. The most frequent partners were: the Sejm Library, the Jagiellonian Library (pre-war books), the Ossolineum Library, and the Main Library of Nicolaus Copernicus University. Also donations from various institutions (e.g. US Embassy, German Embassy, US Congress Library) and private individuals have

increased the book collection. As of December 2009, the Library’s collections are: 148.039 books, 54.381 magazines, 864 special collections (doctoral theses, microfiche, CD-ROMs, DVDs).

The main core of the Library’s collection is Polish and foreign legal literature, especially concerning state law, rules of law creation, organization and international relations, civil, criminal and administrative law and proceedings, as well as history of these fields. The selection also includes literature on economics, European integration, political sciences, state history, sociology and psychology.

Reader in the Library can gain access to a collection in: Reading Rooms (main and of Current Periodicals), a scientific laboratory, a local and interlibrary Lending Room, databases, and an auxiliary workshop – catalogs: alphabetical – of books and magazines; subject: of books. The library also provides services in form of computer printouts from databases.