The chancery and “archive” of Nicolas Copernicus Public Town Library in the years 1923-1939

Abstract

The subject of the office and “archive” of the Library in the years 1923-1939 has never been discussed before in any literature. Thus, the work is based almost exclusively on the sources which were not sufficient to present the issue thoroughly.  However, through the analysis of the source material it was possible to reveal the relation between the office of the Municipality of Toruń (later the City Board) and the office in the Library, at least in the first years of its activity.  The probability that the Library copied the regulations of the municipal office is confirmed in the Library’s acts from that period, where one can find traces of applying the regulations of 1931 and 1934.
The research shows that the office of the Library in the first period of its activity did not have a complicated structure as only one person dealt with office work. By the outbreak of the war the modern non-register  system had been introduced in the office and the lists of acts started to be used to help. The circulation of documents depended on the employed office system, the number of workers taking part in it and how complicated the inner structure in the institution was. The place where documents were stored was adapted to conditions existing in the institution. The conclusion is the office worked well despite the lack of its own norms.