Digitization of the Resources of the Literary Institute in Paris
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Artykuły Kognitywistyka i Media w Edukacji 2018, nr 2 Ewelina Górka Digitization of the resources of the Literary Institute in Paris Abstrakt Digitalizacja zasobów Instytutu Literackiego w Paryżu Instytut Literacki został założony w 1946 r. w Rzymie. Jak wskazano w powołują- cym go rozkazie, głównym celem było prowadzenie akcji wydawniczej w dziedzinie kulturalnej, literackiej i społecznej, a także zbieranie dorobku piśmiennictwa pol- skiego. Inicjatorem tego przedsięwzięcia i redaktorem był Jerzy Giedroyc. W okre- sie funkcjonowania Instytutu Literackiego, tj. w latach 1947–2000, ukazało się 637 numerów miesięcznika „Kultura”, 171 numerów kwartalnika „Zeszyty Historyczne” oraz książki: 26 publikacji w latach 1947–1952 i 378 książek w serii „Biblioteka Kul- tury”. Oprócz wskazanych wyżej publikacji, w archiwum Instytutu Literackiego za- chowała się bardzo duża liczba innych książek, czasopism polskich i zagranicznych, wycinków prasowych oraz dokumentów, listów i fotografii. Ich zebranie i uporząd- kowanie, a także wykonanie wersji elektronicznej było możliwe m.in. dzięki projek- tom: „Inwentarz Archiwum Instytutu Literackiego Kultura” oraz „Digitalizacja Ar- chiwum Instytutu Literackiego”. W artykule została zwrócona uwaga na proces digitalizacji zasobów Instytutu Lite- rackiego. Cyfrowe wersje oryginalnych tekstów źródłowych mogą bowiem posłu- żyć dalszym badaniom na temat spuścizny Jerzego Giedroycia. Wskazany dostęp to także ułatwienie do podejmowania dalszych prac i ochrona dokumentów, zwłasz- cza rękopisów, w związku z niszczeniem i upływem czasu. Jako przykład ilustrują- cy tę tezę w artykule posłużono się przykładem Jerzego Pomianowskiego, jedne- go ze współpracowników paryskiej „Kultury”, wskazując sposoby przeprowadzania wstępnej kwerendy źródłowej, tak ważnej dla realizacji tematu badawczego. Słowa kluczowe: Instytut Literacki, Jerzy Giedroyc, digitalizacja Digitization of the resources of the Literary Institute in Paris 151 The Literary Institute was founded in 1946 in Rome. The main initiator of this idea was Jerzy Giedroyc. The order of General Władysław Anders about the or- ganization of the Literary Institute in Rome with the signature of the of the 2nd Corps’ Chief of Staff – Gen. Wiśniowski was issued on September 28, 1946. Even then, the goals that guided the Institute during its lifetime were formulated. It was a publishing campaign in the field of cultural, literary and social as well as collecting the output of Polish literature. In 1947, it was decided to move to Fran- ce and liquidate the agendas in Rome. At that time, the composition of initial staff was reduced to four people: Jerzy Giedroyc – editor, Zofia Hertz – secreta- ry, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński – literary adviser and co-editor, Zygmunt Her- tz – administrator. Initially, the Institute’s headquarters was located in Maisons- -Laffitte, on 1, rue Corneille, but after 1954 it moved to the house at 91, Avenue de Poissy, where it is still today. In France, the editorial board was as follows: Je- rzy Giedroyc, Zofia Hertz, Zygmunt Hertz, Józef Czapski, and from 1952 Henryk Giedroyc – Jerzy’s brother. In the period of the Literary Institute, ie. in the years 1947–2000, 637 issu- es of the monthly journal “Kultura”, 171 issues of the quarterly “Zeszyty Histo- ryczne” (Historical Notebooks) and books were published: 26 publications in the years 1947–1952 and 378 books in the series “Biblioteka Kultury” (“Kultura Lib- rary”). In addition to the publications mentioned above, a large number of other books, Polish and foreign magazines, press cuts as well as documents, letters and photographs have been preserved in the archives of the Literary Institute. Their arrangement was possible, among others thanks to the help of the editor’s staff, including Zofia Hertz, the activities of Giedroyc himself and initiatives suppor- ted by various institutions. In 1995, the Society for the Care of the Archives of the Literary Institute in Paris was founded, which was to help organize the ar- chive’s collections. In addition, in the years 2001–2003 on the initiative of prof. Jan Pomorski, and under the leadership of Janusz Łossowski, a group of archi- vists from UMCS undertook inventory. The work has not been completed. I also mean projects implemented since 2009. In 2009–2015 it was a project “Invento- ry of the Archives of the Literary Institute Kultura” financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and headed by Maria Wrede from the National Library. In addition, in the years 2016–2020, the project “Digitization of the Ar- chives of the Literary Institute” is being implemented. Its participants are: Asso- ciation of Literary Institute Kultura, the Supreme Directorate of State Archives and the National Library. Thanks to the initiatives indicated above, the contents of the archive have been sorted out, described and cataloged, and scanned, so that they can be used for 152 Ewelina Górka further research in electronic form. The work continues to this days1. In this artic- le, attention will be paid to the process of digitizing the resources of the Literary Institute and its effects. Digital versions of the original source texts may serve to further research on the heritage of J. Giedroyc. The indicated access also facilitates to further work. As an example illustrating this thesis, I will use the case of Jerzy Pomianowski, one of the translators and publicists of the Parisian “Kultura”. I will show, how to conduct a preliminary source query, so important for the implemen- tation of the topic. The IL’s archives contain mainly materials from 1945–2010 (in addition mate- rials from the Second World War) with small gaps, including in the series of the Editorial Board 1946–1953 or correspondence2. Most of these were manuscripts. Other frequently occurring forms are: machine copies, photocopies, computer’s descriptions, printed e-mails, press clippings, leaflets, invitations, notices. The col- lection was complemented by photographs and few audio-visual and sound re- cordings3. Maria Wrede writes: “The size of the sources is 165 meters of paper do- cumentation, 15 meters of non-recurrent documentation, total of 38,000 units, including 151,000 letters; in addition, almost 10,000 photographs and 1,200 units of non-formal documentation”4. After completing the inventory of IL’s resources, another stage of work was un- dertaken – scanning and digital photography of manuscripts. The project “Digi- tization ...” led by Danuta Wójcik, and from mid-2017 Magdalena Rud, is curren- tly being implemented by employees of the National Library5. One of the effects of these works was a publication by Maria Wrede – Guide to the Archives of the Litera- ry Institute Kultura. It is useful aid for researchers and all interested in such topic. Thirteen archive series were distinguished for organizing resources: “Func- tioning”, “Editorial Correspondence”, “Editorial Folders”, “Workshop Materials”, “Personal Materials”, “Unused Materials”, “Distribution”, “Help”, “Finances”, “In- formation about Activities”, “Materials on Other Media and Non-Textual Papers”, “Personal Papers of Home Residents”, “Materials Entrusted”. Their division and short characteristics were included in the publication indicated above. For an example, I will give a brief analysis of two series. 1 M. Wrede, Przewodnik po zasobie Instytutu Literackiego Kultura, Warszawa 2018, p. 9–10. Com- pare also: T. Czarnota, To zawsze zostanie dla potomności… Archiwalia w kręgu myśli i prac Jerzego Giedroycia, Lublin 2010. 2 Ibidem, p. 12. 3 Ibidem, p. 13. 4 Ibidem, p. 15. 5 There are plans to organize and describe the collection of printed materials – books, magazi- nes and small publications as a part of the future project “Library of Institute Literary Kultura”. Ibi- dem, p. 16. Digitization of the resources of the Literary Institute in Paris 153 The third series entitled “Teki Edytorskie” (“Editorial Folders”) contained five sub-series. The first of them was “03.01 Kultura – teka redakcyjna” (“03.01 Kultu- ra – the editorial folder” – ILK TR K), containing the texts used to the next issue of the monthly journal. The second sub-series “03.02 Biblioteka Kultury – teka re- dakcyjna” (“03.02 Kultura Library – the editorial board” – ILK TR B K) were texts in the form of manuscripts or typescript of individual publications. We can distin- guish here further sub-collections, corresponding to the publishing series of the “Kultura Library”, ie. “03.02.01 Archiwum Rewolucji – teka redakcyjna” (03.02.01 Archive of the Revolution – editorial folder), “03.02.02 Bez Cenzury” (“03.02.02 Without Censorship – editorial folder”), “03.02.03 Dokumenty – teka redakcyjna” (“03.02.03 Documents – the editorial folder”). The third sub-collection was the portfolio of another magazine published by the Literary Institute – “03.03 Zeszy- ty Historyczne – teka redakcyjna” (03.03 Historical Notebooks – editorial folder” – ILK TR B K / ZH), containing sources and journalistic texts and other historical studies. The next sub-series were “03.04 Teki Redakcyjne ILK” (“ILK Editorial Fol- ders” – ILK TR ILK), with materials not assigned to earlier ones, and published, for example, outside the series or outside of “Kultura”. The last sub-series was “03.05 Projekty i Plany” (“03.05 Projects and Plans” – ILK PiP), with projects and plans realized or unrealized, eg. “03.05.01 Amerykańska antologia “Kultury” (“03.05.01 American anthology of “Kultura”), “03.05.02 Czechosłowacja 1968” (“03.05.02 Czechoslovakia 1968”) or “PiP 07.03 Materiały do niedoszłej Białej