In April 2023, we had the pleasure to host Dominik Maiński for a five-day visit as part of the Erasmus+ program. Dominik is a colleague at the University Library at John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland. After his visit, Dominik very kindly sent us the following impressions from his stay with us.

Erasmus+ visit in the Library

My name is Dominik Maiński and I work at the University Library at John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland. My city is located near the border with Ukraine, so we have hosted a lot of refugees from there since the beginning of the war. In addition, I am a historian and an art historian researching contemporary Polish art. My job is also tourist guiding and traveling. In my institution, I specialize mainly in manuscripts, working on a daily basis in the Special Collections Department. My unit deals with the collecting, sharing with users and promotion of our collections, which have over 50,000 items, among which, apart from manuscripts, there are also valuable incunabula, old prints, maps and graphics.

My stay at Linköping University Library lasted 5 days ‒ from 24th to 28th April 2023. I had meetings on the Valla Campus, the Medical Campus and the Campus in Norrköping. It was my seventh trip within the Erasmus+ program. So far, I have had trainings in Iceland, Norway, Finland, Greece, Turkey and Portugal. The work of Scandinavian libraries made the greatest impression on me. Among my trainings so far, the one in the Linköping Library was the most professional and best organized. I would like to thank David Lawrence and Emma Burman, as well as other librarians and employees of the University Library, for hosting me. It was very nice to meet you.

The work of the Linköping Library and mine are very similar. We also try to base our activity primarily on electronic materials. The Library in Lublin is a more than 100-year-old institution whose headquarters, unfortunately, do not give the possibility of organizing an open access to most collections. We hope it can change in the future. It is impressive that on the Linköping campus, the Library is not only a library but also a place for meetings of employees and students, which makes it the heart of the University. The situation is similar at other Scandinavian universities. In Lublin the main Library is located in the city center, but outside the main academic campus. In addition, we have about 20 departmental libraries.

Besides Linköping and Norrköping, I also visited Uppsala with Carolina Rediviva, Stockholm, Lund and Malmö. It was my first trip to Sweden, but certainly not the last one. I met great people and visited beautiful places. Swedish art galleries and museums, among which the ABBA Museum was most impressive for me, are especially interesting and worth to visit. Swedes are very well organized, nice and playful people 🙂

By: Dominik Maiński, PhD