Stanislava Knapčoková (Slovak National Library, Slovakia)
The Slovak National Library is the owner of several rare historical library collections. These collections represent the cultural heritage of the society. The historical collections began to be created at the end of the 19th century from the donations of the founders and sympathizers of Matica slovenská. The Slovak National Library was later separated from Matica slovenská. The rarest collections of historical funds come from church, noble and private libraries, which were deposited in this national institution in the mid-1950s. These libraries contain a number of rare and unique prints,and also these funds show the collecting preferences of collectors and previous owners. Also for this reason, in the 1990s, a systematic way of recording prints with bibliographic output in the form of printed editions was started. To this day, the research tasks in the library are determined by the historical libraries of the collectors. The main and long-term research tasks are primarily focused on the complete bibliographic description of Slovak-related prints and the creation of bibliographic catalogs of individual historical library funds. Others deal with the research of elements of historical books, illustrations in the context of domestic production and bookbinding of European workshops, preserved in the Slovak National Library fund. The article deals with research in historical collections in the library.