MUSEUMS OF HIGH SCHOOLS IN POLAND

The scientific conference “Identity andHeritage. Museums of High Schools” held in Krakow, 22–24November 2017, was a good occasion to learn more aboutthe institutions that look after the broadly defined academicheritage. The legal status of high school museums have beendescribed in the article as well as the consequences thereof.The results of research on such museums existing in Polandhave been presented. The study was conducted in 134 publicinstitutions of higher education; it focused on identifyingmuseum and academic collections, and their rank within anorganisational structure of the institution.The analysis of collected data allowed to ascertain thenumber of high school museums operating in Poland, whichis 68; they are administrated by 44 various high schools(universities as well as schools of specialisation: technical,medical, agricultural, economic, pedagogical, artistic). It hasbeen pointed out that in the years 2009–2018 as many as 17new collections were initiated (some of them are still beingorganised or changed their status after merging of institutionsor collections). As far as the museums’ place within anorganisational structure of the school is concerned, it hasbeen noted that the faculty museums are the most commonones, followed by those of the general school-wide status.The most important changes that academic museums arepresently facing have also been mentioned and describedherein, such as transformations of organisational and legalaspects. Last but not least, the virtualisation of collectionshas been identified as a current issue.