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The 19th century brought numerous changes in political, social and economic life, which also left a mark upon libraries. This can be seen especially in the case of libraries that had been operating for a long time, serving both scientists and the so-called general public. Using the example of the German court, university and city libraries of 1789–1871, we will show how these changes influenced the condition of the access to the collections. Typical problems in this field included: short opening times of libraries, a narrow circle of users limited to the upper-class; limiting the time and number of books borrowed at one time, which was caused by a number of factors, including insufficient staff and / or financial resources. Until 1871, the condition of the access to collections was influenced by excessive individualism, a lack of cooperation, and a variety of organizational solutions in German libraries. The awareness of the shortcomings and limitations, as demonstrated by the next decades, paradoxically led to cooperation in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On June 3-4, 2019, the Second International Scientific Conference Concerning Paul Ladewig and his Library Catechism took place at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz (hereinafter: UKW). Its organizer was the Department of Scientific Information, located in the Unit of Scientific Information and Bibliology of UKW. This is the second edition of the conference dedicated to the thoughts and activities of the outstanding German librarian and library expert, Paul Ladewig. The two-day conference taking place within the walls of the UKW Library gave the opportunity to listen to presentations whose subjects referred to issues related to the functioning of libraries and their users in accordance with the thoughts contained in the most famous work of Paul Ladewig -- Library Catechism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]