There are two large libraries in Toruń with holdings of great historical value. The Nicholas Copernicus Public Library in Toruń is the older one, established in 1923 by merging the Academic Gymnasium Library and the Toruń Town Council holdings, which derive their origins from the 16th century, and the holdings of two: Polish and German, scientific associations in Toruń, established in the second part of the 19th century. The Public Library holdings are of regional character, however it contains the archival collections concerning Polish emigration. There are materials related to Józef Feliks Zieliński - Izet Bey, the democratic social worker and publicist of the Great Emigration in the 19th century, and with the Oficyna Stanisława Gliwy (1910-1986) Archives, the publishing house operating in England in the second part of the 20th century. Both of the collections are comprehensively described in this book.

The University Library was established in 1945, but over the 50 years of its activity it has become the biggest, most modern and most effectively operating scientific library in northern Poland. The specificity of the University Library holdings are, above all, books, magazines and special collections concerning the historical regions of northern Poland (with the Great Dutch of Lithuania and especially Vilnius), Prussia, Pomerania and the Baltic countries. Since the mid-nineties, the Library has been looking for and collecting books and archival publications referring to the Polish emigration after 1939, and it is nowadays the only institution of such kind of activities in Poland. Since 1998, the separate study-room: Archives of Polish Emigration has been operating in the structure of the University Library. It contains the original manuscripts by the most eminent Polish writers in exile: Gombrowicz, Miłosz, Stempowski, Lechoń, Herling-Grudziński and Wierzyński.

This work on Informator of the Toruń University Library collections of Polish emigration publications has been based on the experiences and publishing results of other Polish scientific libraries and adjusted to the needs, structure and specificity of the NCU Library, the only scientific library in Poland with the separate section dealing with collecting original emigration archival materials. We have concentrated, above all, on describing the sources and circumstances of creating the emigration collection. Therefore, Informator contains extensive studies about the access to the emigration collection in the University Library and its acquisition.

The researche conducted in individual Library sections gave the possibility to elaborate independent essays concerning the Polish emigration collections in the Section of Special Collections: manuscripts, graphic collection, music collection, social life documentation, and, above all, in the Archives of Polish Emigration. Separate essays deal with the Polish emigration collections from the reference library in the Information Services and with the series possessed by the Library. The study about scientific, publishing and popularising activities completes the description of the NCU Library holdings.

Informator presents the holdings from the end of 1998, in case of the Archives of Polish Emigration - from April 1999.

Chapter of a book: Zbiory i prace dotyczące emigracji i Polonii w Bibliotece Uniwersyteckiej oraz Książnicy Miejskiej w Toruniu. Informator. Toruń 1999

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