25 lat Czytelni Austriackiej w Bibliotece Jagiellońskiej (1986-2011)

The year 2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Austrian Reading Room within the Jagiellonian Library. The Reading Room was offi cially opened on the 28th November 1986, on the strength of an agreement between the Republic of Austria and the Jagiellonian University, so as to serve the researchers and students of the Jagiellonian University as a didactic and study center, meet the needs of the Kraków academic circles and systematically bring closer the Austrian culture to the Polish people. In the Austrian Reading Room one can fi nd works published in Austria and relating to Austria; they concern chiefl y the humanities (philosophy, literary studies, linguistics, history, history of art), social sciences (economy, sociology, politics, law), as well as the geography of Austria. At present the collection numbers 7648 volumes, as well as some selected journals and electronic documents. The article presents an outline of the history of the creation of the Austrian Reading Room and reconstructs the process of the growth of its collection, the arrangement of the collection as well as the manner of making it accessible to the readers. It tells us about the users of the collection and about the employees of the Jagiellonian Library who look after the collection; it also takes into account the information concerning the premises where over the span of 25 years the books belonging to the Austrian resources were made accessible to the readers. In the fi nal part of the article, we learn about the extra library range of activities of the Reading Room and about the events that promote the Reading Room.