An Idea of a Film Dedicated to Book Preservation, 1946

Abstract

Among the materials kept at the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, one fi nds an exceptional piece of evidence – a plan for a film documentary dedicated to post-World War 2 efforts to preserve library collections, conducted by the personnel of the aforementioned library. This plan is divided into two parts. Part one portraits the works on transporting the collections, hidden by the Germans during the war in Malbork, back to Gdańsk. Part two shows the functioning of the reconstructed library. This draft is devoid of information concerning its author and dating. An analysis of the plan and its sources demonstrated that it must have been drawn up in 1946, by Marian Pelczar, the director of the library. It seems that the best moment for such ideas was 22 June 1946, when the library was offi cially reopened to the public after the war. That celebrated moment coincided with the 350^th anniversary of the establishment of the institution, which housed important materials, including the works of the Gdańsk astronomer Johannes Hevelius, Krzysztof Mrongowiusz, Gotffried Lengnich, or the valuable book collection of Johann Uphagen. The plan for the film is particularly interesting, because it shows the aspirations to record in the form of a film documentary the efforts of the library milieu in reconstructing the Gdańsk Library, and the libraries in the region in general, and to emphasize the importance of the Gdańsk collections, the cultural signifi - cance of which are of European rank.