In accordance with the policy to keep gathering resources, which was adopted along with the establishment of Cieszyn Library, we attach particular importance to acquiring materials related to Cieszyn and Austrian Silesia, as well as to people associated with Cieszyn Silesia who were born or lived here. We also gather materials which have distinct provenance to Cieszyn Silesia. We also add to our Library collection selected silesiaca, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, humanistic overviews and publications which are necessary for the Library to function (bibliographies, library catalogues and publications about bibliography, history of books, librarianship, library science, heraldry and genealogy).
In the years 1994-2017, Cieszyn Library acquired 39367 new items, 24464 (62%) of which came from donations. 10921 units (28% of acquisitions) were bought, while the rest (3982 units, that is 10%) came from other sources, e.g. interlibrary exchange.
A large part of new acquisitions are newly published regional publications. The majority of them were donated to Cieszyn Library free of charge by their authors, publishers, printing houses and editorial offices.
Some materials come from other libraries, both in Poland and abroad. Cooperation with other libraries usually consists in the exchange of books, which means that libraries supplement each other’s resources with double copies (which are often unavailable in the bookselling market) or with new publications issued by the libraries themselves. We exchanged books with German libraries (Martin Opitz Bibliothek in Herne, Library of the Herder Institute in Marburg, Library of the Stiftung Haus Oberschlesien in Ratingen), thanks to which our Library acquired numerous silesiaca published in Germany.
The collection of serial publications includes about 200 contemporary journals, almost 30 of which are Polish nationwide titles that we subscribe to, and the rest are regional and local periodicals that we obtain from editorial offices free of charge.
The great majority of our acquisitions are historic materials which are donated to our Library by private individuals or institutions. Thanks to these donations, many valuable and often truly unique publications and manuscripts are added to the resources of Cieszyn Library.
Thanks to the Zbigniew Michejda Donation, an institution established in 2003 by Barbara Michejda-Pinno, over 1600 items were added to the resources of Cieszyn Library. Many of them came from the collection gathered by Michejda family members and included unique regional publications, as well as contemporary publications from other countries.
In the years 1994-2017, numerous materials from private collections were given to Cieszyn Library. The most abundant of these collections were those gathered by Maria Skalicka (1923-2002) and Edmund Rosner (1930-1998), a professor of Polish and German studies. Moreover, there are unique archives from the legacy of Józef Mazurek (1891-1968) which are of special value. They document the history of the resistance movement and the Nazi occupation of the Trans-Olza Region (Zaolzie). When it comes to materials from private collections, we also acquired parts of the book collections of Kazimierz Błahij (1924-1990), a writer and publicist; Jan Brody (1911-2007), a regionalist and bibliophile; Edward Buława (1925-2003), a historian; Kazimierz Fober (1919-2002), a cultural activist; Józef Golec (1935-2017), a teacher and regionalist; Oswald Guziur (1910-1996), an activist in a branch of National Cieszyn Silesia Association in Katowice; Teofil Hrabiec (1906-1971), a bibliophile; Jan Korzenny (1925-2010), a Polish studies scholar from the Trans-Odra region; Tadeusz Kozerski (1917-1998), a pharmacist from Częstochowa; Tadeusz Kopoczek (1930-2018), an editor; Jan Król (1922-1992), a historian; Józef Nierostek (1901-1943), a pastor; Władysław Oszelda (1907-2005), a journalist; professor Józef Pieter (1904-1989), a psychologist; Rudolf Ramsza (1907-2003), a teacher and classical philologist; Władysława Sikorowa (1917-2010), an activist in the scout movement; Henryk Trzaskalik (1900-1986), an activist in Polish organizations in the Trans-Olza region; Marian Żyromski (1934-2013), a Polish teacher.
Many unique materials made their way to Cieszyn Library thanks to donators who offered their private collections and family keepsakes to the library when we were looking for items which could be exhibited. Thus, the resources of Cieszyn Library were enriched with valuable materials donated by members of the Michejda and Buzek families, the relatives of legionaries from Cieszyn and families of Katyn massacre victims.
There is also a sort of a Cieszyn archive of the Solidarity movement (Solidarność). It is made up of a few hundred samizdat publications which were donated to Cieszyn Library by members of the opposition who were active in the region in the 1980s.
A significant part of new acquisitions came from a few big book collections gathered by local institutions and organizations. Cieszyn Library received books and archive materials from: The Management Board of National Cieszyn Silesia; the Cieszyn branch of the Polish Historical Society; the Cieszyn branch of the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy; the Cieszyn branch of the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society; the Cieszyn branch of the Polish Esperanto Society; the Roman Catholic Parish in Zebrzydowice; and the Roman Catholic Parish in Kończyce Wielkie.
Moreover, book collections of the Deanery Library and the Roman Catholic Parish in Czechowice-Dziedzice were deposited in Cieszyn Library.