Julia Konopka-Żołnierczuk, Deputy Director of the National Library of Poland

In 2020 we learnt that libraries are more necessary in today's world than we had ever previously imagined. Libraries – by which we mean not only library buildings but also the digital and physical services they offer, a place where people can connect during a pandemic and the people who work there and who enjoy the trust of society – proved themselves a truly modern solution. During the pandemic, cooperation between Polish libraries was highly efficient, from the National Library and major provincial public libraries right down to university, school and local public libraries. These institutions worked together as a network, at the same time demonstrating how much individual libraries can do in specific communities. They also demonstrated, not for the first time, that they are often the only fully free point of access to knowledge and information. Many people understood for the first time the key role played by libraries in connecting communities.

Throughout the pandemic, the National Library published recommendations for libraries and their activities. It promoted its digital library polona.pl and launched a digitisation-on-demand service for items from the Library's collections, the digitised items then being available for everyone via the website. Moreover, thanks to the National Library's digital interlibrary loan service Academica, every library in the country, even those in a small rural locations, was able to access items from the National Library's store rooms. This was particularly valuable for students who had had to return to their family homes and were attending university classes online.

Libraries that had already made the digital shift were able to maintain almost full contact with their users during the lockdown. In contrast, those that had not yet gone digital lost those many users who these days prefer digital resources and services.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Poland once again had the opportunity to test the strength of its library network, which had been significantly bolstered during the pandemic. It passed the test: Polish libraries often acted as centres for assistance for refugees from Ukraine, almost nine million of whom had arrived in Poland by the end of the year. Very often, libraries were the first place refugees went after crossing the border, and where they received initial assistance. Later, the libraries organised Polish language courses, workshops and other activities for refugees, mainly mothers and children.

在2020年，我們了解到圖書館於當今世界更加必要。圖書館―我們指的不僅是圖書館建築，還包括它們提供的數位及實體服務，在疫情大流行期間是可以讓人群匯集以及工作的地方，並享有社會大眾的信任—證明了圖書館確實是現代人解決問題的地方。這段期間，從波蘭國家圖書館和主要省級公共圖書館，到大學、學校和地方公共圖書館，波蘭圖書館之間的合作展現了奇高的效率。除了合作，各個圖書館在特定社區中的角色，通常是唯一完全免費獲取知識和資訊的管道。大眾第一次了解到圖書館在連接社區方面所發揮的關鍵作用。

疫情期間，波蘭國家圖書館發布了針對圖書館及其活動的建議，它推廣了數位圖書館(polona.pl)，並推出了客製數位化服務，讓民眾都可以上網使用。此外，波蘭國家圖書館的數位館際互借服務(Academica)，讓每個圖書館，甚至是偏遠地區的圖書館，都能夠使用國家圖書館典藏室的資料，這對於不得不返家以及出席大學線上課程的學生來說特別珍貴。

那些已進行數位轉型的圖書館在封城期間能夠與使用者保持著幾乎充足的聯繫，反之，那些尚未進行數位轉型的圖書館則失去了那些使用者，亦即疫情期間喜歡數位資源和服務的人們。

2022年2月24日俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭後，波蘭再次有機會測試其圖書館網絡的實力，該網絡在疫情大流行期間有著顯著的加強且通過了考驗：波蘭圖書館經常扮演烏克蘭難民的援助中心，截至該年年底，有將近900萬難民陸續抵達波蘭，很多時候，圖書館是難民越過邊界後首先去的地方，也是他們獲得初步援助的地方，甚至，圖書館替難民（主要是母親和兒童）開設波蘭語課程、講習班和其他活動。