Public libraries for children in Poland 1918-1939 – assumptions and reality

The article attempts to reconstruct the assumptions and ideas that influenced the creation and organization of public libraries for children in the interwar period in Poland. On the basis of press articles and archival materials, two models of child reader support were described (Łódź model – creation of book rental, and Warsaw model – creation of readers), as well as foreign models (French and American) used by the founders of these institutions, taken over by the emerging Polish libraries. In the final part, there is a reference to war and just a post-war history of children’s libraries. The names of the creators of the idea of children’s librarianship in the Second Polish Republic were recalled (among others, Helena Radlińska, Jan Augustyniak, Maria Gutry, Jadwiga Filipkowska-Szemplińska and others