Materials
The Education and Library Department of the Schol of Social Sciences of the Society of the Working Class University in Kraków 1946–1951
In 1946, the Towarzystwo Uniwersytetu Robotniczego Society of the Working Class University brought about the launch in Kraków of the Wyższa Szkoła Nauk Społecznych School of Social Sciences, headed by Kazimierz Dobrowolski, a historian of culture and sociologist. It was a three-year evening college with three departments: society and self-government, journalism, and library and education. The last department, headed by the librarian of the Jagiellonian Library Adam Bar, held classes conducted by distinguished librarians and book experts, including Irena Barowa, Aleksander Birkenmajer, Jan Baumgart, Helena Lipska, Aleksander Słapa and Eugenia Malinowska. The special subjects in the curriculum 1949/50 were: in the second year — librarianship 120 hrs and cataloguing 60 hrs, and in the third year — library pedagogy 30 hrs, readership 60 hrs, bibliography 30 hrs, subject catalogues 60 hrs, library legislation 20 hrs, library inspection 10 hrs, library administration and accounting 10 hrs, children’s, youth and workers’ libraries 30 hrs, manuscripts 10 hrs, old printed books 10 hrs, history of libraries 10 hrs, book production 20 hrs, and publishing and book trade 10hrs. Over the five-year-long existence of the School, a dozen or so students completed the library studies programme. The graduates who passed the diploma examination obtained — in addition to their School of Social Sciences diplomas — an undergraduate studies diploma issued by the Jagiellonian University.