University of Silesia in Katowice

The Information and Library Studies degree programme prepares students to exercise professions requiring specific knowledge and skills in the organisation and course of social communication with the use of written (traditional and electronic) and non-written (audio, graphical, cartographic, audio-visual) documents, supporting or fulfilling educational, knowledge acquisition, artistic, entertainment, and compensatory needs in the lives of individuals and the society systematically striving for general progress.

During the course of studies, most of the classes attended by students take a practical form. Students also gain useful experience by participating in the operation of selected libraries while carrying out their internships at positions responsible for basic library and information processes, including direct contact with library employees and users. They raise their skills in public speaking by drawing up oral and written speeches. They also learn the basics of writing a scientific speech by collecting information sources, conducting their critique, interpreting the facts, and editing their diploma theses.

Studies are conducted both full-time studies and part-time.

Programme catalogue – curriculum

What makes our degree programme special?

‘Education through action. Protecting and selecting documents’ is a project co-implemented by the University of Silesia in Katowice, Zagłębie Museum in Bedzin, and the Silesian Library.

Thanks to a tri-party agreement between the scientific and cultural institutions, students gain practical experience in protecting paper surface documents, while selected museum pieces undergo passive and preventative conservation.

Graduates of our degree programme were often among the winners of the Librarian of the Year competition by the Polish Librarians Association.

The aim of the Competition is to present to the national library community and the general public those library employees who have distinguished themselves with exceptional achievements in a given year and are deserving of high recognition and promotion of their achievements.

The class schedule includes a specialist language class – English Terminology, in which we emphasise knowledge and skills in expert terminology.

As part of specific class modules, we carry out field classes, which allow students to come in direct contact with the discussed issues of book institutions (libraries, archives, museums, publishing houses) and heritage protection.

We are the only degree programme in Poland to have their own Laboratory for the Preservation and Conservation of Library Collections, in which we carried out works on the protection of valuable old prints from the monastery libraries from the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa and Skałka in Kraków. Students use the laboratory for practical classes.

The Laboratory of Archiving is also at out students’ disposal, in which we teach them how to carry out professional scanning, graphic design, and digital publishing. Publications digitised by students enrich the collections of the Silesian Digital Library.