Create a textual database of diaries in the collections of the Institute for Western Affairs.

The project is designed to protect and offer broader access to the journals held by the Institute for Western Affairs. The project involves the digitization of diary materials gathered in three contests organized by the Institute for Western Affairs. In keeping with the traditions of Poznań cultural sociologists inspired by Florian Znaniecki and his humanist methods, the Institute for Western Affairs has for years collected the journals kept by Western Territory settlers. It held 3 contests which helped it amass approximately 1100 diaries. These became the object of numerous studies on the social and cultural transformations that took place in the Western Territories. The authors of such studies included Zygmunt Dulczewski and Andrzej Kwilecki. The contests were:

The December 1956 journal contest for settlers in the Recovered Territories (a total of 227 submissions were received);

The 1966 journal contest for young residents of the Recovered Territories z 1966 (167 submissions)

The 1970 journal contest for the residents of Western and Northern Territories (747 submissions).

The aim of the project is to transcribe the journals. Ultimately, this is to help create a database that comprises complete texts of journals that will subsequently enable their deeper analysis. Such work will make it possible to preserve precious testimonies on efforts to keep national and cultural identity alive in the Western Territories.

In addition to journals, the project covers the digitization of photographs. The photograph archive of the Western and Northern Territories includes the positives and negatives of a total of ca. 6000 photographs made in the late 1940s. These constitute a unique record of post-war life in the Recovered Territories.