Asim Maner Award Winner 2026: Jacek Hałuszkiewicz

1.Tell us about yourself – where you are from, your occupation, etc.

I come from Gdynia, a large modern port city on the Baltic Sea. I was born there and spent most of my life there. Currently, I have moved to Chojnice. It is a small charming town, also located in Pomerania, with a rich history and a great atmosphere. The many lakes, forests, and diverse landscape make it a really special place.

I used to be a professional soldier in the Polish Navy. After finishing my military service, I started working in education. I work as a school counselor in a vocational school for young people.

2. How did you start collecting bookmarks?  Do you remember your first bookmark?

That’s one of the most difficult questions 😉. I have never really been sure when the first one appeared. In fact, these passions have been with me for as long as I can remember. For about 20 years, I have been collecting different random things that I simply liked. I had similar objects in my childhood or remembered them from my grandparents’ shelves and drawers. Over the years, I collected medals, decorations, fossils, stamps, coins, sugar cubes, Kinder toys, postcards, and many other things.

While working at school, I tried to encourage children and teenagers to develop interests and also involve their parents or grandparents in cooperation. That is why I created a series of meetings called “Share Your Passion.” Together with invited guests, I presented most of my collections at school for people who were interested or still searching for their own hobbies. At that time, I realized that you cannot collect everything, and bookmarks take up “little” space. There were so many beautiful ones that I decided to start collecting them seriously. That was about 10 years ago, and at that time I already had around one thousand bookmarks.

As for the very first bookmark, I honestly have no idea. There were always a few or even dozens at the same time, and every single one of them seemed unique and beautiful.

3. Do you have any favorite types or special emphasis in your collection?

My collection includes many different types of bookmarks. I collected everything — and I think it will probably stay that way. However, I especially like nature-themed and travel bookmarks. I also enjoy bookmarks from museums. Nowadays, I try to collect historical pieces in order to preserve them from being forgotten.

4. What is the most unusual bookmark in your collection?
This is probably the oldest Polish bookmark currently in my collection, which I acquired together with a letter from the 1920s. It is unique because it carries a message about respecting books.

5. How do you acquire your bookmarks

Many of my friends already know about my hobby, and they often bring me bookmarks from their holiday trips. I also cooperate with many institutions that regularly provide me with new or historical bookmarks (unfortunately mostly modern ones, but still equally valuable). I buy commercial bookmarks directly from producers. I also visit the biggest book fairs in Poland, where I can find even more bookmarks for my collection. Duplicate bookmarks are used for international exchanges. I also buy bookmarks on eBay, Vinted, and Allegro in Poland.

6. How many bookmarks do you have (an estimate)?

At the moment, I have stopped counting because I am reorganizing the entire collection, but I estimate that it contains more than 40,000 bookmarks.

7. How do you organize, display and store your collection?

I store the bookmarks in binders, in special sleeves designed for banknotes. Unfortunately, many of them are still kept in cardboard boxes, where they are already sorted into sleeves by publishers or types.

After creating the Bookmarks Museum, I prepare thematic display boards on which the bookmarks are presented. I already have 100 such boards, and they are permanently exhibited in the Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna w Chojnicach and at the Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego.
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I also present bookmarks at exhibitions across Poland, mainly at the invitation of libraries or events related to books. Metal and plastic bookmarks are stored in wooden boxes that allow them to be easily displayed during exhibitions.

8. What has been your experience in using the IFOB Swap List, if any?

Thanks to the lists from iFOB, I was able to obtain many beautiful bookmarks from different parts of the world. However, I was invited to participate in exchanges only a few times. Most of the exchanges were initiated by me. This is an additional advantage of collecting and having hobbies — contact with other people.

9. What do you enjoy about IFOB?  Is there anything you would like to see IFOB do in the future?

Contact with people who share similar interests, the knowledge I can gain through conversations with collectors from different countries, interesting articles, and seeing the same object from completely different perspectives. And I think also the fact that IFOB has given bookmarks and the people who collect them a new meaning.

11. Do you collect anything else?

As I mentioned earlier, I used to collect many different things, but at the moment I am moving away from that. I am able to present over 30 different collections. Among the larger and more interesting ones are sugar cubes (4,000 pieces), Kinder toys (3,500 pieces), military and civilian badges (over 2,000 pieces), and cinema lobby cards/postcards from films (collected for 20 years, over 6,000 pieces).

13. Do you have any advice for those who are just beginning to collect?

Sometimes it’s worth listening to the advice of people who already know something about it, so don’t ask me — I’m still learning all the time 😉

14. As a winner of the Asim Maner Award, tell us more about what you have done to promote bookmarks for World Bookmark Day or in general.

The most important thing was founding the Bookmarks Museum and honoring Asim by naming the museum after him.

10. Do you have any plans to celebrate World Bookmark Day next time?

I have many plans. I will certainly continue organizing exhibitions related to the history of bookmarks in new places and promoting the Bookmarks Museum.

​The Bookmark Gala will also continue, and I hope it will include greater participation from my exchange friends. I would like to encourage Polish artists to send bookmarks to WOBODA. Perhaps it would also be possible to organize a scientific conference for people from different parts of the world, combined with a large exhibition of bookmarks. But for now, these are just loose ideas.

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The second key element of this important anniversary was the Bookmark Gala 2025, where Polish bookmarks were nominated and awarded in 11 categories in cooperation with people from IFOB and under IFOB’s patronage. This was accompanied, of course, by an exhibition of bookmarks from different parts of the world. As part of promoting the city’s anniversary celebrations, a competition was held for a bookmark marking the 650th anniversary of Chojnice.

​I have also strongly started research work for a book on the history of the Polish bookmark.