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The paper is concerned with activities of Polish Institute of Book and Readership (Instytut Ksiqzki i Czytelnictwa) from Warsaw (National Library). Author traces its history, aims and main outcomes as well as its transformations during the more than 55-year long history. In the second part, the attention is paid to outcomes of the 2008 statistical survey. Polish reading culture dropped hugely and reached the bottom of the whole time since the beginning of these surveys. The reason is that particularly leading readership groups lost more than those without no so firm links to reading. This drop concerns mainly the most educated part of the population and the youngest people (15-19 years). One is thus confronted with a new phenomenon a high school educated expert who succeeds an intellectual. His attitude to reading is predominantly instrumental and pragmatic. In addition to that, Polish readership still show strong barriers in age and demography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]