Archival Fonds

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Archival Fonds

The search tool allows to search for information on the national archival holdings in two databases SEZAM and ZoSIA. Data were collected in the middle of year 2012.

In the SEZAM database there are gathered information on holdings of the State Archives and these institutions: the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and its Branch in Poznań, Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków, Archives of the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń, of the University in Lodz and of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, the Warsaw University Library, the Society of Solidarity Archives, the "Tygodnik Powszechny" Foundation in Kraków, the National Museum in Warsaw, the Museum of the Piast Dynasty on Lednica, the Kobyłka’s Museum of Weapon and Usable Technics, the Łódź Branch of the Association of Siberian Deportees, the Stanislaw Konopko Central Medical Library in Warsaw, the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, the Central Military Archive (records created before 1939), the Order of the Hospitallers of St. John of God in Kraków, the Pilsudski Institute of America, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America in New York, the Pilsudski Institute in London, Polish Social and Cultural Association Ltd., the Polish Army Veterans Association of America and the Central Archives of Polonia in Orchard Lake.

The ZoSIA database contains information on holdings of the state archives in Lublin and Poznan.

The authors aimed at the harmonization of currently binding standards of the Polish archive science with the International Standard of Archival Description ISAD [G]. It is updated on a current basis and merged once a year at the Head Office of the State Archives. Its on-line version shows the state of knowledge on the archival holdings as of the 1st half of year 2012.

The database contains data on the holdings on a fond level: the fond name/name of creator, classification of creators (english translation in RTF format, 16 kB), border dates of documents, extent in archival units and current meters of archival (A category) and non-archival documents (B category), information about elaboration - the type of a fond card and existing finding aids and the place of preservation. Description of some fonds has also a summary history of the creator, scope and content, a language of material and access conditions.

If an archival fond possess a digital inventory, it is attached to the description of the fond. Digital copies of documents presented on-line are accessible by links located in the description of the fond (DOCUMENTS).
Descriptions of registers of population and civil registers which are presented on-line are accessible by links located in the description of the fond (REGISTERS OF POPULATION and CIVIL REGISTERS).

Searching guidelines

The SEZAM database offers several possibilities to search data, both within the holdings of specific, selected archives as well as within data coming from all the archives. In order to find desired information in specific archives, one should select the archives from the drop-down list. If no specific archives are selected, the search will be conducted in the holdings of all the archives. Number of Fond is a field, where the fond’s number can be written. The number is unique in each archive and if the archive is not selected, all fonds with this number in all archives will be displayed.

Title of Fond/Name of Creator field is provided to enter the full name of an archival fond or any character string (one or two) from the fond name.

Fields: Category and Sub-category comprise drop-down lists of classification entries making it possible to find documents of a specific subject group, such as for example administration of various levels, notarial deeds, records pertaining to military issues, education. The category includes 22 general classification entries, some of which may be developed into lower rank entries (see: a drop-down list in the sub-category field). The choice of one entry in the field category, cultural institutions, for example, will result in the identification of all fonds of records included into this group in the archives. Summary history of the creator allows to search for a phrase or a word in history of the fond’s creator, if the fond is described. The same can be made with field Scope and content, which contains the summary of fond’s contents. Fields: starting date and final date are provided to enter time frames of interest. Please enter the year only, not the month or the day. In order to get a list of all fonds preserved in the archives one should select the name of the archives not specifying any further search criteria. When the list of archival fonds searched is displayed, one may obtain more detailed information on the identified records by clicking the inscription more, placed in the last column of the list. By clicking column titles (Archives No., Fond No., Fond Name, Dates) one may sort data included therein in an ascending order.

Note: Those having no possibility to use Polish fonts (diacritical marks) may use Latin alphabet, i.e. write "urzad" instead of "urząd" or "Lodz" instead of "Łódź". However, please do not combine these two forms of writing; for example, write "Raciąż" or "Raciaz" but not "Raciąz", "spółdzielnia" or "spoldzielnia", not "spóldzielnia". Email all opinions and questions about the SEZAM database at: Adres poczty elektronicznej jest chroniony przed robotami spamującymi. W przeglądarce musi być włączona obsługa JavaScript, żeby go zobaczyć.
 

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