PROTECTION OF THE POLISH WRITTEN AND PRINTED HERITAGE – NATIONAL LIBRARY RESOURCE

Written and printed works are one of the most important cultural achievements of every country and nation. This often priceless heritage is protected, among other things, by libraries which are responsible for collecting, preparing, storing, protecting and sharing their collections. The article focuses on one form of protection of these resources – the Polish National Library Resource (NLR), which has a legal basis and gives examples of good practice. The analysis presented in this paper covers the normative Acts that cover only those collections which are unique and exceptionally valuable for Polish culture. It was found that perception of these special collections has changed and that nowadays there are only a small number of libraries that take part in the NLR programme.