History of the Processing of Collections at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Library from the Beginning to the Present Day

The celebration marking the 80th anniversary of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University founding was an inspiration to present the history of the processing of the University Library’s collections. The Book Cataloguing Department is the linchpin of the library, as the development of a library collection involves the preparation of formal and factual descriptions, classification for free access, maintenance of inventories, catalogues, i.e. all the processes that enable a user to find the publication they are looking for. The article shows the structure of the department, the scope of activities performed in it, the impact of changing technologies on the evolution of cataloguing principles that has taken place over 80 years in library work. The compilation adopts a chronological order to delineate the landmark periods associated with the transformations taking place in the work of the Department. They have been divided into four stages: the years 1951–1967 (establishment and organisation of the department), 1968 1993 (moving to a new building and changes in working principles), 1994–2022 (beginnings of computerisation, library systems, factual description) and the present day related to the ALMA system. The following research methods and tools were used in the article: bibliographic method, document analysis, participant observations and case study.