Jean Dickson is curator of the Polish Collection and subject specialist for modern languages and literatures in Lockwood Library. A UB librarian since 1986, she is responsible for collection development for French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish literatures and languages, in addition to providing both general and specialized reference service.

What are the origins of the Polish collection?

In 1955 the American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs had its convention in Buffalo, which at the time had a thriving Polish neighborhood concentrated on the East Side. The Buffalo host organization was the Polish Arts Club, whose president was Aleksander Janta-Polczynski, a Polish journalist-in-exile, writer, bibliophile, and apparently an effective leader. Janta-as he was known-worked out a deal with the University of Buffalo, then still a private institution, and its president, Clifford Furnas, to dedicate a room in Lockwood Library (then, of course, on the South Campus in what has since become the Health Sciences Library) to Polish and Polish-American books, manuscripts and objets d'art. The two leaders actually signed an agreement that included the provision of furniture and stained-glass panels to be provided by the Polish community and the space and shelving provided by the university. Joseph Mazur, the artist who designed and decorated the interiors of many Buffalo churches, gave four stained-glass panels portraying prominent Polish cultural figures, including the poets Juliusz Slowacki and Adam Mickiewicz, pianist and composer Ignace Paderewski, and composer Frederick Chopin. Local cabinetmakers donated handcrafted display cases, a table and other furnishings. The most unusual and precious donation probably was the set of Polish royal documents that the Sattler's department store purchased and presented as a manuscript cornerstone to the new collection. These are described briefly and have been scanned into the Polish Room Web site .

What is in the collection?

The books number about 11,000 volumes, while journal volumes are less than half that, so that we really are crowding the room now. The Polish Room is all shelving and books now-no space for reading or contemplating, I'm sorry to say. The major areas in which I have been selecting books are history and current social sciences of Poland and Polish language and literature. There also is a fair representation of books on Polish art, history of Polish Americans, and a few books on other subjects, such as philosophy and music. Most of the books I order are in Polish, but a significant minority are in English. Other Lockwood librarians are careful to order books from United States presses that address Polish history, society and arts, when they encounter them. In recent years, I have added about 50 videotapes of feature films and educational films, which are accessible through the UB Libraries online catalog and probably are the most heavily used category of materials in the collection.

How is the collection used and by whom?

The collection has a diverse group of users, including faculty members here and from other academic institutions in the region, students of Polish descent, independent researchers, genealogists and high-school students. There has been a Polish Studies program at UB, run by Professor Czeslaw Prokopczyk, that has sparked a lot of use, too.

What does a collection curator do?

I spend a lot of time sorting through catalogs, both print and online, trying to decide what to order for the collection. I also get email correspondence from people all over the place who are looking for information or materials that they think we might be able to provide. However, being the curator of the Polish Collection is only one part of my job, so I am not able to devote all my time to such pursuits.

Why are such collections important? History? Literature?

I think the Polish Collection is particularly important as a long-term commitment between the university and the local community. It is unusual because there are very few ÒethnicÓ collections in American universities that are dedicated to one nation or nationality. There are many Slavic collections or East European collections, but very few Polish collections in the U.S. The relatively narrow focus of this collection allows us to provide quite good coverage of the field.

What are the most unusual, rare and valuable items in the collection?

As I mentioned earlier, the documents of the Polish kings are unique. We also have a few letters from the 20-century writers Stefan Zeromski, Maria Konopnicka and Maria Dabrowska. And, we have two rare books. In general, though, we currently collect only books and journals, since we have no archival space available.

Where is the collection? Does it have a special collection room?

It's located in 517 Lockwood, in the southeast corner of the fifth floor, on the corner of Putnam and Putnam!

Do you speak Polish?

Tak, ale nie dobrze! I can speak some Polish, but for the most part, I can claim only reading knowledge of Polish.

In this era of tight budgets, what are the consequences for the collection?

I am very concerned about the Polish Collection and all the non-English-language books and journals. Many people assume that all the ÒimportantÓ stuff has been translated into English, so we don't really need all of these materials, but, in fact, only a small fraction is translated. In addition, of course, much is lost in any translation of a literary work. I think much of the depth of a university collection resides on its multilingual material, especially in the humanities and social sciences.