Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna im. Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego w Łodzi (Jozef Pilsudski Regional and Municipal Public Library in Lodz)
Poland
The Provincial Public Library is the institution of Culture of the Local Government of Lodz. The Library was established on October 11, 1917, thanks to the social initiative of the Society of Friends of the Library and the support of the city’s local authorities. In the 1930s, a new headquarters began to look for a constantly growing book collection. However, the building of the library, in its intentions – the Gmach-Pimlogue dedicated to Marshal Piłsudski, stood on the corner of Gdańska and Kopernik Streets only in 1939. After World War II, the City Library was named after Ludwik Waryński. In 1990, the institution returned to its former patron. Since 1 January 2013, the Library has been called: the Provincial Public Library. Marshal Józef Piłsudski in Lodz.
Today, the Library’s collections count over 900,000 units and include: old and contemporary books, from various fields of knowledge, with particular emphasis on social and humanities, selected publications from foreign literature, Polish and foreign magazines, old prints, manuscripts, graphics and cartography, social life documents, music documents, electronic documents. The special collection itself consists of nearly 100,000 copies (2022.)
The institution provides care and substantive supervision over the network of local government libraries in Lodz and the Lodz region, collects materials and edits the current regional bibliography of the Lodz region, cooperates with libraries and scientific information centers in the country and abroad in the field of book exchange, methodological and organizational consultations. The library also organizes exhibitions, popular science sessions, meetings, readings popularizing reading and awarding the “Gold Ekslibris” award for the best popular science books about Lodz and the region.
