The Polish National CIS Centre represents the CIS international network of information on occupational safety and health in our country.  

The participation in the work of such a large group of highly specialised information centres (about 140 Centres, operating in 101 countries on all continents) provides the opportunity on the one hand to disseminate information internationally on Polish achievements and literature in the area of the protection of people in the work process, while on the other hand, it allows for the receipt and distribution of information on foreign events and solutions in the area of occupational safety and health, as well as documents and information materials received from the network of CIS Centres.  

The National Centre therefore collects, stores, prepares, distributes and disseminates information and publications of the International CIS Centre, other CIS Centres and institutions related to this network, and also prepares information on Polish events and literature for foreign sources of information related to the CIS.

The National Centre offers:  

1. For domestic users:  

 - on-site access in the CIOP-PIB library and the loan of publications obtained from the International CIS Centre and from other Centres,
 - the possibility of sending information and texts of selected documents to interested parties in printed or electronic form
 - photocopies of fragments of publications
 - translation of short texts into Polish
 - receipt of information and foreign publications through the network of CIS Centres
 - based on the publications and databases owned (including the CISDOC database)
 - search for information and write-ups of summaries of literature on specific topics
 - access to full texts of documents (up to 150 pages) contained in the CISDOC-TEXT database
 - intermediation between Polish users and the International CIS Centre, facilitating contacts, assistance in obtaining subscriptions to the International CIS Centre’s services
 - dissemination of CIS information in various forms including access to information on the latest events worldwide and new publications, as well as the activities of the CIS Centres through the National Centre’s website
- access to the full texts of the monthly "CIS Newsletter" on the National Centre’s website
- international promotion of information on the activities and publications of individual Polish institutions through the website, databases and publications of the CIS Centres
 - international and national promotion of specific institutions through the CISDOC database, as a result of the documented analysis of these publications by the National CIS Centre *  
- international and national dissemination of information on the activities of Polish institutions in the area of occupational safety through foreign CIS publications and the National Centre’s website *
- access to the full texts of selected documents.

* see section: "National CIS Centre’s partners"

2. For foreign users, including CIS Centres:  

- access to information on Polish activities in the area of occupational safety, ergonomics, environmental engineering and related areas  
- information of other CIS Centres about the work conducted by the Polish National CIS Centre  
- development of cooperation, exchange of information and publications of the International CIS Centre with the CIS information network  
- dissemination of information among Polish users in various forms (website, articles in foreign trade magazines, distribution of documents in printed and electronic form etc.) about the types of activity and achievements of foreign institutions, including the CIS Centres.  

The Polish CIS Centre collects all the most important publications and databases of the International CIS Centre.  It holds editions of the ILO Encyclopaedia in English and French, as well as translations into Russian and Serbo-Croatian.  It also has the latest, fourth edition in English in printed form and on CD-ROM.

As the National CIS Centre, we receive the ILO-CIS Bulletin in English and French, all other publications and databases of the International CIS Centre, the magazines: African Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety and Asian-Pacific Newsletter on Occupational Health and Safety, the CIS Newsletter (currently only in electronic form) free of charge.

The National Centre subscribes among others to the CISDOC database on OSH-ROM, together with 5 other databases, and has purchased, and will continue to subscribe to the full-text CISDOC-TEXT database, which contains the full texts of documents (of up to 150 pages), the summaries of which are contained in the CISDOC database.

The National CIS Centre makes all of these publications available free of charge.  

The search for information and the preparation of lists of literature is also undertaken free of charge, based on orders placed by telephone, post or electronically.  This may be made available in electronic form, on diskette (own or on a purchased diskette) or in the case of several pages - in printed form.  

The National CIS Centre prepares abstracts of the most important documents in English and in Polish, which are then submitted to the International CIS Centre.  This Centre includes selected abstracts of Polish publications in the CISDOC/CISILO database.  


Contact: Barbara Szczepanowska,
e-mail: baszc@ciop.pl
tel. (48 22) 623 36 89.