Kartka z dziejów 45-lecia Archiwum AP im. KEN w Krakowie

Abstract

The oldest pedagogical university in Poland is preparing its 60-year jubilee (1946-2006). Over 100 thousand students graduated from this school during that time. About three thousand staff members of the school worked to educate them. The teachers were busy with didactic and scholarly work, school administration, organization of the teaching and learning processes. The whole functioning of the school has been - and still is - documented by the ever growing volume of archival materials. Some of them have a historic value, and as such they are stored “for ever”. Among those documents are the materials related to “Pedagogium” (1928-1946), i.e. the semi-higher education school headed by Dr Heniyk Rowid. In September 1946, on the basis of its material assets, the 3-year State Pedagogical School of Higher Education was established. Since that time, 12 Rectors headed this expanding school. In 1973, the school was given the honourable name of the National Education Commission. Organized in 1959, the archives of the school collect all documentation connected with its own development embedded in the fate of the Polish educational system. 12 successive workers of the archives organized the collection which comprises about 500 thousand documents. The collection occupies shelves that are 2500 metres long. During one year of its operation, the school’s administration hands over to the archives even as much as 70 metres of documentation. On the basis of this collection, the Academic Publishing House of the Pedagogical University has published a selection of the 523 most important documents from 1946 to 1996. Three volumes of sources and eight “book” studies of the history of the school present its life during the past 50 years. Another great monograph of the 60 years of the University is currently being prepared. The Archives of the Pedagogical Academy by the name of the National Education Commission is also contributing to this work.