{"id":33318,"date":"2026-04-02T09:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/activity\/research-departments\/biblioteka-mnk\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:53:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:53:53","slug":"mnk-library","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/activity\/research-departments\/mnk-library\/","title":{"rendered":"MNK Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"477\" src=\"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/biblioteka-mnk-1065x497_original-1024x477.jpg\" alt=\"Drewniany rega\u0142 z centraln\u0105 pionow\u0105 przegrod\u0105 i dwiema p\u00f3\u0142kami wype\u0142nionymi r\u00f3\u017cnej wielko\u015bci oprawionymi ksi\u0105\u017ckami o ozdobnych, lekko zu\u017cytych grzbietach, zdj\u0119cie w tonacji sepii.\" class=\"wp-image-8316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/biblioteka-mnk-1065x497_original-1024x477.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/biblioteka-mnk-1065x497_original-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/biblioteka-mnk-1065x497_original-768x358.jpg 768w, https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/biblioteka-mnk-1065x497_original.jpg 1065w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The book collection of the National Museum Library in Krak\u00f3w comprises over 135,000 items, including more than 114,000 books and 20,500 periodicals. <sup>1<\/sup> It is expanded through purchases, donations and exchanges with nearly 200, mainly European, museums, libraries, art colleges and associations. As a result, the Library holds a representative collection of exhibition catalogues and the collections of other museums, particularly Polish ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It serves primarily as a resource for MNK staff in the scholarly study of artefacts. The reading room is also open to other museum professionals, researchers and students, exhibition curators and MNK exhibition guides, as well as anyone interested in art and the Museum\u2019s collections. It houses an extensive reference collection comprising basic dictionaries and general and specialist encyclopaedias, armorials, biographical and linguistic dictionaries, bibliographies, art history textbooks, and museum guides. It also contains statutes, exhibition and collection catalogues, and periodicals documenting the Museum\u2019s publishing and exhibition output. Access to the collection is facilitated by an <strong>online catalogue<\/strong> available on the Museum\u2019s website. It contains information on over 63 per cent of the collection \u2013 books, journals, electronic documents and music materials. Publications on the history of the Museum held in the Library have been digitised and are available in digital libraries \u2013 the regional Ma\u0142opolska Digital Library and the international Europeana. The Library also compiles <strong>specialist databases<\/strong>, accessible via the internet \u2013 a Bibliography of the contents of collective works in the MNK Library (since 1980), Publications by MNK staff, and a Bibliography of publications on art historians, museum professionals and collectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the computers in the reading room, you can search licensed <strong>external databases<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>JSTOR<\/strong> with the full content of selected historical and contemporary foreign journals corresponding to the Museum\u2019s profile<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>artprice.com<\/strong> with current market prices for works of art worldwide<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>artinfo.pl<\/strong> with information on the art market in Poland<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Allgemeines K\u00fcnstlerlexikon<\/strong> \u2013 the most comprehensive and up-to-date biographical dictionary of artists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Card catalogues are also available: an alphabetical catalogue of books and journals, a reference collection catalogue, a systematic catalogue (organised according to the Universal Decimal Classification), and a topographical catalogue (of exhibitions and collections). The latter two were discontinued in 1993 when the development of computerised databases began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The MNK Library in its current form has existed since the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, its history dates back to the 1880s. It was at this time that the Museum\u2019s Board recognised the need to collect \u201cpublications dealing with monuments on Polish soil\u201d and handbooks to assist museum staff \u201cin evaluating works\u201d, allocating funds annually for their purchase. The profile of the book collection, defined briefly but accurately at the time, remains almost unchanged to this day. It consists of <strong>Polish and foreign books and journals<\/strong> covering the fields represented in the Museum\u2019s collections, ranging from <strong>specialist bibliographies, encyclopaedias and dictionaries, through handbooks and overviews of the history of art, military history, numismatics, conservation and museology<\/strong>, to discussions of specific topics. The collection of periodicals is also extensive, comprising many rare titles across all the aforementioned fields. Chronologically, it covers works published after 1800, referred to as \u2018modern prints\u2019 to distinguish them from \u2018old prints\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The thematic scope of the current book collection has also been influenced by donated, and less frequently purchased, private libraries or parts thereof, which have found their way to the Museum since the 19th century. Although the character of each has been shaped by the diverse, and sometimes wide-ranging, interests of their owners, they can be grouped into several thematic collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The largest and most significant is <strong>the donation by Feliks Jasie\u0144ski<\/strong>, which partly comprises works relating to the history of culture, art and crafts of the Far East. These include biographies and lavish albums devoted to Japanese artists, as well as catalogues of the most famous European collections of Japanese and Chinese art and crafts, published in the first quarter of the 20th century. These are supplemented in this regard by books donated by Edward Goldstein. Meanwhile, the numismatic publications\u2014many of them unique\u2014including a substantial collection of foreign-language journals, belonged to eminent collectors and historians of the history of money and medallic art: Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, Antoni Ryszard, W\u0142adys\u0142aw Bartynowski, Marian Gumowski and Lech Kokoci\u0144ski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also significant for the Library are the <strong>artists\u2019 book legacies<\/strong>: MNK Wyspia\u0144ski<sup>2<\/sup> (with historical works and source publications that served as inspiration or a factual basis for the playwright\u2019s literary and artistic output), Olga Bozna\u0144ska (with exhibition catalogues and literary works by contemporary authors dedicated to the painter), J\u00f3zef Czapski (with publications relating to the artist\u2019s wide-ranging interests \u2013 art, literature, philosophy, history and politics, rich in commentary \u2013 evidence of close reading) and J\u00f3zef MNK Mehoffer<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(with catalogues of the artist\u2019s exhibitions). The collection in this regard is supplemented by exhibition catalogues of Krak\u00f3w artists \u2013 Janina Kraupe-\u015awiderska, Julian Jo\u0144czyk and Lucjan Mianowski. Also significant is the collection of books bequeathed by former Museum staff: W\u0142adys\u0142aw Janiszewski, Kazimierz Buczkowski, Helena Blum, Maria Gutkowska-Rychlewska and Zdzis\u0142aw \u017bygulski Jr., including publications acquired with a view to cataloguing specific works from the Museum\u2019s collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historical collections or parts thereof belonging to the Library have been discussed in the works of: Maria Koc\u00f3jowa \u2013 on the collection of E. Hutten Czapski, Anna Gruca \u2013 on the library of MNK Wyspia\u0144ski, and Jolanta Sopi\u0144ska \u2013 on the Polish-language books of J. Czapski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>1<\/sup> Figures as at the end of 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> MNK Wyspia\u0144ski\u2019s book collection and two others (formerly belonging to Prof. Leon P\u0142oszewski and to Ryszard Sielski and Maciej Miko\u0142ajczyk) associated with the artist are on loan to the MNK Szo\u0142ayski House, where the artist\u2019s work is exhibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>3<\/sup> The library of J\u00f3zef, Zbigniew and Ryszard MNK Mehoffer is on loan to the J\u00f3zef Mehoffer House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compiled by: <strong>Halina Marcinkowska<\/strong> \u2013 MNK Library, <a href=\"mailto:hmarcinkowska@mnk.pl\">hmarcinkowska@mnk.pl<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:50px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The book collection of the National Museum Library in Krak\u00f3w comprises over 135,000 items, including more than 114,000 books and 20,500 periodicals. 1 It is expanded through purchases, donations and exchanges with nearly 200, mainly European, museums, libraries, art colleges and associations. As a result, the Library holds a representative collection of exhibition catalogues and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":24032,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33318","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33324,"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33318\/revisions\/33324"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.mnk.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}