If you don’t know the author or the title, but you want to know what documents on subject of your interests were obtained by the Library till 1st of November 1995, you should look for them in the Systematic Catalogue.

To get information you need you have to define the branch of knowledge covering the subject of your interests and locate it in the scheme of library systematic classification. The descriptions of documents are classified by scientific disciplines, different disciplines are arranged according to their subject matter: from the general to the specific.

The subject catalogue contains publications published in XIX and XX centuries except notes and illustrations. All library holdings are divided into three branches: Nature, Community, Culture, to which the relevant scheme books are related. At the beginning of each scheme book you will find the general subbranches. In this scheme, the relations between publications from different disciplines are expressed by means of cross references "zob." for a publication located only in one place and cross references "zob. też" for publications connected or complementing each other. If it is possible the Library uses the standardised subbranches. All publications from the scheme are copied on to the catalogue cards, which are alphabetically arranged by an entry. For the practical reasons there are catalogue descriptions of bibliographies, dictionaries, periodicals in the front of each group of catalogue cards.

Except catalogue books cards, in the systematic catalogue you can find catalogue periodicals cards; they are different from the cards in the alphabetical catalogue. They contain such information like: periodical title, subtitle, frequency and a note referring to the alphabetical periodicals catalogue.

The systematic catalogue contains also the partial cards of works printed in journals, visitors’ books, collective studies. These cards contain following information: author, title, call number and a note referring to the bibliographical description of publication, where these works can be found.
Attention! When ordering this kind of works you have to write the title of periodical or collective studies, which contain them.

When you use the systematic catalogue of the University Main Library, its subject index will be very helpful. It is available in the form of book by the catalogue cases. You will find there names of branches and subbranches arranged alphabetically and each name will be accompanied by the number of the catalogue case, to which the index refers e.g.:
Physics 138-169
Physics - bibliography 138

In the systematic card catalogue no symbols are used. To make your searching easier, the numbers of cases ( as well in the index as in the scheme) are given, e.g.:
Astronomy
      Radioastronomy
                  The Sun, Moon and Stars researches 134

The biographical materials are arranged in the catalogue according to the affiliation of the scientific, literary or social publications written by individual authors to the relevant branches. The source of the biographical information are the subdivisions: "theoreticians and practicians". For each group of the biographical materials the relevant entries were separated e.g.:
Astronomy - Astronomers
Physics - Physicists

Very helpful in your searches may be also the authors’ index, printed as a book, it refers from alphabetically arranged authors’ names to the number of the catalogue case, where you can find materials about the theoreticians and practicians of various branches of knowledge and the chosen publications written by them. If the field of activity of one person covers more than one branch of knowledge, in the authors’ index you will find the name of this person occurring several times e.g.:
Kopernik Mikołaj, astronomer 130
Kopernik Mikołaj, economist 1223
Kopernik Mikołaj, philologist 1702
Kopernik Mikołaj, philosopher 1499
Kopernik Mikołaj, cartographer 250
Kopernik Mikołaj, physician 410
Kopernik Mikołaj, lawyer 1295
Kopernik Mikołaj, library owner 54

Attention! From the 1st of November 1995 you the library systematic catalogue is available only in the electronic form.

Page elaborated by: Anna Churska