A collection of books was gathered from scratch during the first post-war years. The book collections of the Ministry of Culture and Art were acquired. In 1951, the Library moved to the building at ul. Długa 26.
The IS PAN Library enjoyed a period of economic stability in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, in 1965, it was possible to relocate the Library’s premises to the building of the former Customs Office, reconstructed after its complete destruction during the war.
By the 1980s, the Library had a collection of approximately 20,000 serial and 86,000 non-serial publications.
Grants awarded by the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1994 and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1990 had a considerable impact on the Library’s current financial position.
Currently, the Library has over 136,000 books and over 30,000 serial publications. The collections comprise all art disciplines, as well as a substantial number of volumes enabling inter-disciplinary studies in the humanities, in the broadest sense.
The first attempt to computerize the Library’s catalogue was made in 1993, starting with the newest arrivals, through the use of Mikro CDS ISIS software, made available to libraries by IINTE.
In 1996, the Library became party to the Agreement of PAN’s Academic Institutions on the Computerization of Libraries. The Library purchased and currently uses the Horizon system.
Address:
Pl. Krasińskich 1A
00-207 Warszawa
Tel. (22) 50 48 256
e-mail: library@ispan.pl
Opening hours:
Tuesday - Thursday: 9 a.m. - 3.30 p.m.
Chief Librarian: Ewa Taranienko, MA
Tel. (22) 50 48 260;
Reading Room:
Krystyna Ciesielska
Tel. (22) 50 48 256
Staff: Jolanta Ewa Jankowska, MA Tel. (22) 50 48 254; Elżbieta Barczewska, MA, Kamila Pełka, MA, Grzegorz Barczewski, MA
Tel. (22) 50 48 252
Store Room:
Piotr Drewniak
Tel. (22) 50 48 261
CATALOGUE
The following catalogues are available in the Library: alphabetical and by class using the Dewey Decimal Classification system for books; alphabetical order for magazines, alphabetical order for reference books, as well as topographic files for the reference library. A computer catalogue is also available on line: katalog online Biblioteki Instytutu Sztuki PAN
You can learn about recent acquisitions here acquisitions [nabytków]
For reader comfort we have compiled a selection of Catalogues of Polish and Foreign Libraries available on-line.
COOPERATION
The IS PAN Library kindly requests your cooperation concerning Interlibrary loans and supplementing any missing items among IS PAN publications. We have also been given earlier publications for use by readers.
HISTORY
The idea of organizing a library in the capital city, gathering materials on the history of art and serving as a resource for academic projects, was born in the inter-war period. In 1930, the Instytut Propagandy Sztuki [Institute for the Propaganda of Art - (IPS)] was established in Warsaw. Its scope of activity, which initially focused exclusively on expositions, expanded considerably in the second half of the 1930s, gaining an academic and documentative character. It was then that proposals to organize a specialist library in the Institute were first raised.