The first volume of the Cracow Archival Annual appeared in 1995. In his introduction the Archive director and editor of the Annual, Dr Sławomir Radoń, set the objectives for the new publication, making reference to the publishing traditions of the Cracow Archives from the end of the 19^th and first half of the 20^th century.

The Cracow Archival Annual is open mainly to young archivists, who are at the beginning of their scholarly career, but at the same time it also welcomes the co-operation of experienced archivists and historians from Cracow and other academic centres. Professors from the Jagiellonian University, archivists from The Central Archives for Historical Records in Warsaw and from the State Archive in Cracow have been invited to the Editorial Committee of the Annual. Each issue is reviewed by two members of the Editorial Committee.

The Cracow Archival Annual publishes materials connected with the history of Cracow and the whole of the Małopolska region. The layout of the Annual is as follows: articles, source materials, miscellanea, in memoriam, review articles and chronicle.

In the part entitled "In memoriam" volume IV there are articles devoted to the late Cracow archivists: Włodzimierz Budka, Adam Kamiński, Helena Zaj_cowa (materials from a symposium commemorating them). Volumes V, VI and VIII of the Annual were dedicated to the memory of the late Jagiellonian University professors - Marian Friedberg, the director of The Archives for Historic Documents of the City of Cracow (1940-1952), Zbigniew Perzanowski, the director of the State Archive in Cracow (1981-1991) and Professor Wiesław Bieńkowski, a member of the Editorial Committee of the Cracow Archival Annual. Volume IX was dedicated to the renowned Cracow archivist and our friend, Dr Wacław Kolak, on the occasion of his 80^th birthday.