The Studies into the History of the Book and Book Collections quarterly (until 2019 an annual) was established in 2006, as a successor to the series “From the History of Polish Historical Book Collections”. By publishing articles treating on subjects pertinent to the broadly understood culture of the book in historical context, the journal continues the line of its predecessor, but at the same time widens the scope of its interest to encompass the history of the book outside of Poland too. Hence, the periodical aims to provide a forum for the exchange of thought for Polish book-historians, and by inviting researchers from abroad to publish their articles with us, to present to the Polish specialists current accomplishments, initiatives, and trends in book studies abroad.
After the first two volumes, which mirrored the initial phase in the development of the periodical, the next three proved to be an editorial and scholarly success. Vol. 7-8, 9 attained the size of c. 400 printed pages; ever since Vol. 2 contributions by foreign scholars are constantly present. With Vol. 4 the journal received a modern external appearance. Other changes in the graphic layout have been made since 2016, together with the process of the quarterly adaptation to international standards of electronic journals. The electronic version is the original one for the title.
The Editorial Committee is counseled by a Scholarly Advisory Board comprised of researchers from all Polish academic centers which train librarians at the university level, and of scholars from Austria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukrainian, Hungary, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. Foreign members constitute nearly 50% of the Board. The periodical is on permanent acquisition lists of over 40 international libraries, including the Library of Congress and the British Library.
Each article published is subjected to a two-level peer-reviewing process. The periodical comprises the sections: articles, materials, reviews, and a chronicle, and is supplemented by a list of contributors. Some of the volumes encompass specialized sections devoted to a specific theme (Vol. 4: The Swiętokrzyskie Sermons; Vol. 6: Polish and foreign Internet initiatives concerning digital platform of the history of the book; Vol. 7-8: digital humanities), important persons (Vol. 5: A. Kawecka-Gryczowa and J. Grycz) or proceedings (Vol. 9: Polish and Russian cultural heritage in the libraries – research perspectives; special volume in 2017: Polonica in foreign collections; t. special edition 2019. - For the Independent, in which the articles present a multifaceted picture of the factors that shaped the culture of the Second Republic, but also allowed its heritage to survive during and after the Second World War; v. 3/2021- Book culture history research in Slovakia; v. 2/2023 - Cyrillo-Methodian Written Culture: From Medieval Sources to the Latest Research; v 4/2023 - Selected resources in special libraries and archival collections in the United States and Canad)) .
All articles have a summary and keywords in Polish and English, as well as references.
The periodical appeared each year until 2019 when the Editorial Board decided to change its frequency into a quarterly, to enable faster availability of the articles within the scholar communication, and an increase of their citation rate. It has a website, containing full information complying with the standards for electronic journals. All articles are freely accessible, under the Creative Commons license, complying current standards of the Creative Commons organization, in particular CC BY- NC 4.0 (attribution, non-commercial share). The Editorial Board does not require any payment for accepting the articles for publication, it neither pays any fee.
