GEN: Floods in poland destroy libraries (fwd)

[Peter Milbury <pmilbury@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

The following is posted as a public service. Please reply to the original
sender for more information.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 11:22:09 +0000
From: Piotr Pienkowski <pp4@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
To: LM_NET-request@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Floods in poland destroy libraries

Dear Friends,

You might have heard about the floods that for the past three weeks
have been ravaging in southern and western Poland, So far there have
been 56 victims of the floods, more than a hundred thousand people
were left homeless, more than a hundred cities, towns and villages
were completely devastated and more than 10% of the country's
territory were lay barren. The floods are still affecting a large part
of the country and the damages run into millions of US dollar.

I am writing to you to ask you for an assistance you could possibly
offer to university and public libraries in Poland that in the past
three weeks sustained a considerable damage due to floods and
torrential rains, worst in the history of Poland.

The cities which suffered most were Opole and Wroclaw in the western
part of Poland. Specific damages sustained by university and public
libraries there are as follows:

Wroclaw:
1. Main University Library: 7 thousand volumes were destroyed
2. Faculty of Law Library, Wroclaw University: 30 thousand books and
journals were flooded 3. School of Medcine: 50 thousand books and
journals were flooded 4. School of Theology (the town of Nysa): more
than four thousand prints and manuscripts from the 17th and 18th
centuries were flooded

Opole:
1. Main university Library: 180 thousand books and journals were
floded 2. Main Public Library: about 25 thousand books were damaged

Some of the flooded collections were transfered to other libraries in
Poland where there were frozen and await drying and other renovation
procedures.

The most pressing needs are:
1. vacuum chambers to dry books and journals
2. quartz lamps
3. driers
4. chemicals and other materials to dry and renovate books
5. financial resources to implement renovation process, to renovate
buildings and to replace damaged ficilities

As the director of Polish Academic Information Center operating at the
University at Buffalo I am in a daily contact with the Polish National
Library in Warsaw which coordinates the rescue operation.

If you would like to learn more about the current situation in Poland
in respect of floods and damages please access
http://wings.buffalo.edu/inf-poland/mourn.html or
http://www.flooding.pl

If you would like to learn more about the Polish Academic Information
Center please access: http://wings.buffalo.edu/inf-poland

I will be very happy to provide you with any additional information
you may require and to facilitate your contacts with the libraries in
Poland.

Sincerely yours

Piotr Pienkowski
PAIC Director
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Piotr Pienkowski

Director
Polish Academic Information Center
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
State University of New York at Buffalo

SUNY at Buffalo
825 Clemens Hall
Buffalo, N.Y. 14260
tel (716) 645 6569
fax (716) 645 3888
e-mail: pp4@acsu.buffalo.edu
http://wings.buffalo.edu/info-poland
mirror site: http://academic-info.uj.edu.pl
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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