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photo: Łukasz Bożycki

Centenary of the Institute in the Library

In November 2018, the Nencki Institute celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Many years ago, the year 1918 was adopted as the date of the official establishment of the Nencki Institute. During the preparatory work for the anniversary celebration, the head of the Library, Jan Bienias, M.A., conducted a careful analysis of archival documents, memoirs, and photographs and discovered that the history of the Institute dates back to 1911, and the first scientific publications with the Nencki Institute’s affiliation appeared in 1912. He described his findings in the introduction of Bibliography of the achievements of the staff of the Marceli Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology: 1912- 2018 published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Institute.

In addition to the Bibliography, the Library staff prepared three thematic exhibitions. Two of them were presented in the reading room, and one was displayed in the main corridor, on the first floor of the Institute.

Exhibit: Biological Stations

Since the beginning of 2018, the staff of the Nencki Library has been working to prepare an exhibition on biological stations related to the Nencki Institute. Lots of photos, materials, and documents were collected. With the help of several Institute staff members, artifacts and knowledge of past events were obtained. Library staff designed posters in the form of images printed on canvas, prepared the information content and had a total of 10 boards – images – printed.

Concept and preparation of exhibitions and designs of boards-paintings: Jan Bienias, Maja Brzozowska, Mariusz Pasznik. Graphic design and preparation of materials for print: Justyna Osmulska.

Exhibit: „White Ravens”

On November 15 and 16, 2018, the Library’s reading room was transformed into an exhibit hall, featuring an exhibit entitled. : “White Ravens” of the Library.

Poster promoting the Library’s “White Ravens” exhibition

Exhibit: Evolution in the acquisition of scientific information

On November 15 and 16, 2018, the reading room in the Library was transformed into an exhibition hall, featuring an exhibit entitled. : “Evolution in scientific information retrieval”.

Poster promoting an exhibition entitled. “Evolution in the Acquisition of Scientific Information”.

Bibliography of the achievements of the staff of the Marceli Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology: 1912- 2018.

In 2016, the team of the Library of the Nencki Institute, led by Jan Bienias, M.A., undertook to collect and compile bibliographic material of the achievements of the Institute’s employees, from the beginning of its existence up to and including 2018. “A thorough analysis of the available archival materials has shown that the first publications with the Institute’s affiliation appear as early as 1912, i.e. several years before 1918, the date recognized as the year of the Institute’s establishment,” – reads the introduction. Apart from a bibliography of publications, a list of abbreviations of names of journals and continuous publications and an index of authors, the book also contains a history of activities of scientific laboratories, departments, biological stations as well as a history of the Library and a description of the Institute’s publications.

The bibliography appeared in print in 2019 (in Polish).

Photo: cover of Bibliography