... from Poland

Last year at the end of May the XVIII Conference of Medical Libraries with the title Collaboration of scientific libraries and broad computer network services B new challenges and perspectives took place in Kraków. The professionally prepared programme included 32 oral presentations grouped in 9 subject sessions. About a hundred people attended this conference. The discussion focussed on the following topics:

• services based upon new electronic technologies

• common electronic catalogues (central catalogues, consortia using the

• same integrated library systems)

• the quality of the library and its staff in the era of new technology

• the library in computer networks under the eye of the law

• on-line journals and network databases

• specialist medical information services and educational tools

• informative-searchable languages in medicine and related disciplines

In addition to librarians, computer science specialists, physicians, pharmacists, scientists and students took part in the conference. Many presentations and exhibitions organised by publishers and companies specialising in the provision of library services accompanied this meeting.

Cultural events were also a nice supplement. A cocktail-party was given on the Renaissance courtyard of the Jagiellonian University Museum of Pharmacy where a unique exhibition displayed medical and pharmaceutical old prints and manuscripts dating from the XVI and XVII centuries. Running through the whole conference was the wonderful music of the philharmonic orchestras. The participants of the conference also attended a marvellous dinner party given in the court in Nieposomice.

The main conference organiser - the Jagiellonian University Medical Library - has published the conference materials in CD-ROM format where full text lectures, presentations of companies and an animated exhibition of old prints can be found.

This librarian meeting in Kraków will remain an important event for us from a professional point of view. Alas it was overshadowed by the news of the sudden death of Professor Janusz Kapuscik, the head of the Main Medical Library in Warsaw. Professor Kapuscik initiated the medical librarian's conferences and zealously supported the idea of collaboration of various health care system libraries. Now we shall do our best to keep readers informed about ways of future collaboration.

It is worth mentioning here that for the last few years medical librarianship in Poland has been undergoing considerable transformation, with regard to automatization and extending access to Internet. The new century paves the way for making future plans with all our past progress in mind.

Anna Uryga

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