Kilka uwag na temat inicjatywy „biblioteki syberyjskiej” w lwowskim Ossolineum

This article discusses the initiative to organize a separate department in Lviv Ossolineum gathering diaries and memoirs concerning the history of Poles in Siberia in the 19th century. This postulate was put forward during World War I by Zygmunt Librowicz (1855–1921), a researcher into the history of Polish exile in Siberia, the author of classic monograph entitled Polacy w Syberii (Poles in Siberia) (Krakow 1884). Many factors decided about choosing Ossolineum for the seat of the “Siberian library”, namely the role of Lviv itself as a “protector of Siberian exiles” in commemorating Polish exile and the function of the city as a significant publishing center for diaries from the exile and a center of historic studies on Polish exile in the 19th century, and most of all the position of Lviv library in documenting Polish national heritage and Polish culture at the time of annexation. This initiative happened during a difficult time in the history of Lviv Ossolineum. Due to lack of sufficient source confirmation it is difficult to state firmly to what degree Librowicz’s idea was revived in the interwar period.