On 15 February 2013 the General Director of the State Archives, professor Władysław Stępniak, signed a new agreement for co-operation by and between the Polish State Archives and an international group of genealogists associated by the Jewish Records Indexing – Poland seated in Montreal. The event was preceded by signing the said document by the Head of JRI-Poland, Mr. Stanley Diamond, at the Polish Consulate in Montreal. 

The Head Office of State Archives, along with the Institute of National Remembrance, organizes the XII International Conference on Archives of the State of Eastern and Central Europe, which, forming a part of series „Colloquia Jerzy Skowronek dedicata”, will be held in Warsaw, 4th and 5th October 2012. This year’s proceedings take place under the motto: The Documentation of Communist Security Authorities. During the two-days-long meeting, participants will discuss the following topics:

• The legal basis of overtaking the documentation of communist security authorities and it’s management;
• The archival description of the  documentation of communist security authorities – experiences and problems;
• Institutions managing the documentation of communist security authorities and the national archives – common relations and problems;
• Access to the documentation of communist security authorities – legal situation, the issue of protection of the personality rights and society’s expectations.

„Real & Other Photos. An introduction to the history, identification and collectability of early photographic postcards”, Anna Michaś, Warszawa 2011, ss. 284, ISBN 978-83-62421-20-6

The book is a unique compendium of knowledge about postcards. It includes extensive chapter, which presents history of postcards, its development and most import theoretical issues. Next chapters describe technical process of production of postcards, characteristic of dedicated photo cameras and information about photographic papers used during manufacturing of postcards.

Publication also includes list of chemical equations, Kodak postcard paper prices (from years 1902-1983), Internet database about postcards and bibliography.
 

30 September 2011 Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski handed to the Chief Director of State Archives prof. Władysław Stępniak the act establishing him as a first term member of the Council of Polish-Russian Centre for Dialogue and Agreement and as a member of the International Council of Polish-Russian Centre for Dialogue and Agreement.

The establishment of the Centre Council and the Polish part of the International Centre Council are the next steps in the organization of the Centre developed on the basis Act on the Polish-Russian Centre for Dialogue and Agreement adopted in March this year.
 

On August 10 2011 at the request of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, the Prime Minister Donald Tusk appointed to the position of General Director of State Archives Władysław Stępniak, PhD.

Władysław Stępniak, PhD – associate professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, member of the International Advisory Committee of the Memory of the World Programme and of the Polish-Russian Group for Difficult Issues.
Between 1973 and 1976, Władysław Stępniak was a PhD student at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, following which he started his career at the Head Office of the State Archives. For a period of 7 years, he was a junior lecturer and later a reader at the Department of Archive Studies. Between 1983 and 1997, he worked at the Central Archives of Historical Records, first as the Deputy Director, and later as the Director of this institution.

Since 1997, Professor Stępniak has been working again at the Head Office of State Archives: until 2007 as the Chief Deputy Director of the State Archives, and currently as the Director's Advisor.

During his academic career, Professor Władysław Stępniak participated in research projects carried out by universities outside of Poland – first in Belgrade, as part of the scholarship granted to him by the Department of Political Science of the University of Belgrade. Later he was a visiting professor at London University (1985) and Stanford University (1994-1995). Professor Stępniak is actively involved in cooperation with academic institutions: he lectures at the Department of East European Studies of Warsaw University, Świętokrzyska Academy in Kielce and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

He is the author of approximately 220 academic publications, including four monographs. His main area of research involves the legal aspects of international protection of cultural goods, the history of Polish archival records dispersed throughout the world and their revindication, as well as issues relating to the availability of archival records. His main areas of academic interest include also the position of small and medium countries particularly the Balkans, in the history of international relations in the 20th century.