The Oskar Kolberg Institute is a scientific and publishing institution whose task is concentrated on edititing and disseminating the legacy of Kolberg in the form of the edition of The Complete Works.

In 1960, according to the decision of the highest national authorities at that time (the Council of State of the Republic of Poland) it was decided to publish the whole archive of Kolberg in the form of The Complete Works as one of the monuments commemorating the millennium of the Polish State. To accomplish this task the Polish Ethnological Society established the separate institution called the Editorial Office of the Complete Works of Oskar Kolberg, whose chief-editor became professor Józef Burszta.

The effects of the activity of this institution (renamed as the Oskar KoIberg Institute) are the identification of Kolberg's legacy, the creation of specialized editorial technique based on systematic research, the publication of 85 volumes of the Complete Works, and many other projects related to folklore studies, ethnography and ethnomusicology.

Apart from the statutory activities, the Institute supports other undertakings promoting the traditional values of the national culture as stipulated in the "Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage". One of those activities concerns digitalisation of the archive recordings of Polish musical folklore from years 1945-1992.