The University of Warsaw Library Department of Ephemera, established on October 1, 1985, is one of the youngest Library departments. Its collections include all types of materials documenting nearly all domains of everyday life, such as posters, brochures, leaflets, photographs, broadsides, calendars, placards, postcards and other unconventional objects including gadgets produced on the occasion of various cultural or political events.

Collections

Printed documents included in the collection accompany and reflect the public and propagandist activity of political parties, social organizations, associations, non-governmental organizations, foundations, political, cultural, educational and scientific institutions. They are published in various forms, graphic layouts and designs, such as leaflets, books and periodicals. The Ephemera Department collects printed documents published after 1801. Printed documents identified presently as ephemera have been collected by the Library since its first days. Before the Ephemera Department was established, they had been treated and catalogued as books and periodicals according to the contemporary cataloguing rules.

The collection is enhanced with current acquisitions as well as documents moved to the Department from the main collections of the Library which have not yet been catalogued.

Valuable materials available to the users of the Ephemera Department include:

• 19th century publications (rare and unique items published in times of the Duchy of Warsaw, Congress Kingdom of Poland, November Uprising, Great Emigration, Spring of Nations and January Uprising),
• printed documents published at the beginning of the 20th century,
• documents published between 1914 and 1918 (documents issued by various political parties and organisations, reflecting their attitude towards the future shape of Poland and printed material published by educational, cultural and military organisations),
• printed materials published in the interwar period (items issued by political parties and organisations, valuable and unique documents published at the time of plebiscites organised in the regions of Cieszyn Silesia, Spisz and Orawa and Upper Silesia and numerous objects concerning other social events in various domains of everyday life),
• printed documents published during World War II by Polish underground organisations and Nazi forces occupying Poland,
• printed objects published in times of the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) (posters and placards, brochures, leaflets and broadsides concerning various domains of everyday life),
• printed documents published between 1976 and 1989 (circulated unofficially, issued by social and political organisations, documenting the activity of political opposition),
• printed documents published after 1989.

Visitors to the Ephemera Department have access to the collections of rare printed objects, such as publisher, bookseller and antiquarian catalogues, money collector badges (primarily from the interwar period), postcards depicting the buildings of the University of Warsaw (from the end of the 19th century to the present), prints and publications portraying the university life, window stickers, posters issued in the interwar period, historical stocks and shares, various invitations, banknotes, election broadsides for a range of periods and political bodies, single issues of various stories known as „street literature”, contemporary wall calendars and advertisements. Moreover, visitors are provided with a small yet valuable collection of foreign publications in Russian, German, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, French, English, Yiddish, etc.

Items included in the Department collections originate from Warsaw, the Mazovia region and the territory of whole Poland. Additionally, the Department holds an abundant selection of foreign publications.

Early printed ephemera are housed in the Early Imprints Department and ephemera included in the collections of personal papers are available from the Manuscripts Department – the Library users may receive detailed information on those objects in the Ephemera Department.
The University of Warsaw Library Department of Ephemera provides its users with a collection of reference works, such as illustrated publications including facsimiles of various types of printed ephemera, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, bibliographies and publications discussing ephemera cataloguing.