The book culture in the Sokółka region

Abstract

The article presents the book culture in the Sokółka region; it consists of a few parts. In the first ones the author describes briefly history of the region and Sokółka city since the 10^th century, as well as history of local education system. In the part concerning development of libraries in this region she focuses on the years 1933-1937 (and libraries of the State Police Station, the Polish Teachers’ Union and a local authorities’ centre of mobile libraries in Sokółka), then establishment, development and activities of a library network in the Sokółka district in the years 1946-1994, including: the Municipal and Community Public Library in Sokółka; collections of public libraries; readership development; education activities of public libraries; activity of the Władysław Spasowski Voivodeship Pedagogical Library, and school libraries. Other parts of the article concerns: the role and function of a book in the communities of: the Catholics (Library and Bookstore at St. Anthony Parish in Sokółka), the Orthodox Christians, the Jews (among others, two libraries active in Sokółka before the World War II) and the Tatars (among others: religious manuscripts in the Museum of Sokółka Region in Sokółka). The last part presents Dominik Donat Pietrasz (1892-1981), a local bibliophile and attorney, owner of the book collection of 5000 volumes, including (among others) valuable source materials to the history of Sokółka region.