the National Library of the Czech Republic
Klementinum 190
CZ-110 00 Prague 1
2nd floor, door No.232

TELEPHONE:

+420 221 663 338

E-MAIL

Vit.Richter@nkp.cz

FAX

+420 221 663 175

• prepares guidelines, methodology, and standards for organizational construction and functional development of public library and information services in the Czech Republic
• provides advisory, consultative, and expertise services to libraries, especially to Public Libraries, information departments and their providers
• carries out up-to-date and ad hoc surveys in the area of librarianship
• in the Information Centre for Librarianship, it provides comprehensive information and library services in the field of library and information science
• the Education Department provides extrecurricular training of library staff.

IN CHARGE

PhDr. Vít Richter

ASSOCIATION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS
OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Klementinum 190
110 00 Praha 1
Tel.: +420-221 663 338
Fax: +420-221 663 375
E-mail: vit.richter@nkp.cz
https://www.skipcr.cz

The Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech Republic (SKIP) is a voluntary professional organization established in the spring of 1990, following in the footsteps of a professional association of the same name which came into being at the time of the Prague Spring in 1968 but was abolished by the then Ministry of the Interior in the summer of 1970.

The SKIP's mission is to try to systematically raise the standard of library and information work and with it the prestige of the profession. It organizes professional and social contacts among library and information professionals, cooperates with libraries and information work-places, participates in the professional training of specialists, and contributes to the lifelong education of library and information professionals. It develops contacts with similar professional organizations both at home and abroad. Since 1990, SKIP has been a member of IFLA - the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. It has taken part in two projects of the European Commission - CELIP (formerly, CECUP), DECID Doc and CERTIDoc. It co-operates with library associations from neighbouring and nearby countries as well as with embassies and legations and their institutions concerned with librarianship.

SKIP has about 1350 members and is organized on a regional principle (929 individual members and 421 institutions). At present, there are 11 regional branches. Professional activities take place within sections and commissions (sections for public libraries, school libraries, university libraries, education, publishing, and foreign affairs committees).

THE CZECH REPUBLIC'S LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Kounicova 65a
601 87 Brno
Tel.: +420-541 64 6 111
Fax: +420-541 646 100
E-mail: kubicek@mzk.cz
https://www.sdruk.cz

The Czech Republic's Library Association was founded in 1992 with the task of systematic organization of professional events aimed, in particular, at research and special libraries. Its membership consits of 46 public and scientific libraries. It regularly organizes seminars on the development of book collections, automation of library processes, and questions related to the setting of library standards. It publishes the Information Sources series, featuring library directories, terminological dictionaries and other methodological aids. It provides information sources on professional literature. Professional activities take place within sections dedicated to bibliography, historical collections, information technologies, and regional functions.

ASSOCIATION OF LIBRARIES OF CZECH UNIVERSITIES

České vysoké učení technické v Praze
Výpočetní centrum
Zikova 4/1903
166 35 Praha 6-Dejvice
Tel.: + +420-224 352 914
E-mail: ramajzlo@vc.cvut.cz
https://www.akvs.cz

It's members are the libraries of universities and institutes of higher learning and its activities are carried out in its Working Groups for Information Education and Information Literacy, for Electronic Information Sources and for Electronic Theses and Dissertations.

Mission and Goals

• to promote, develop and support university libraries in the Czech Republic,
• to advocate university libraries and facilitate their negotiations with information providers, in order to improve their opportunities for cost-efficient purchasing and licensing of electronic information resources,
• to support collaboration and partnership (in order to help in the continuous advancement and effectiveness of library activities and services, education and learning, spreading information literacy activities, etc.) on both the national and international level.

Most libraries have managed to take advantage of possibilities presented through information and communication technologies for developing library services, thereby gaining new clients. The trend of the last few years has been to combine the tasks of traditional libraries with other functions such as public access Internet, municipal information and tourism centres and local community services. Libraries can also serve as a neutral venue for the meetings of various informal groups and community initiatives. It is clear that the only way forward is to systematically and actively support readership and to merge library activities with processes of school and life-long extracurricular education.Very important for the development of public libraries are the regional libraries, which provide and organise support services for small libraries. These services involve 109 public libraries in larger towns that create co-operative systems at the level of the smaller regions. An important tool for evaluating the accessibility and quality of library services is the quality standard set forth by the Ministry of Culture in 2005. The standard sets the parameters of quantitative and qualitative indicators for the following areas of public library activity:

• library opening hours,

• development of library holdings and information sources,

• number of public access Internet stations,

• study carrels and spaces for library users,

• general principles of accessibility to the Public Library and Information Services (PLIS)

The indicator values are set for eight size categories of local authorities. The objective of the standard is to improve the accessibility and quality of library and information services for library users. The standard makes it possible for libraries, their operators, the local authorities, regions and central bodies of state administration to compare and check the accessibility and quality of library services and systematically provide support for library development. The PLIS standard is a motivational tool and its indicators are employed in the provision and use of financial resources from the state budget for supporting the development of PLIS.

The National Library plays an important part in shaping the national library system and in increasing its efficiency. It supports the development of libraries through analytical, methodological and consultancy activities, and processes performance and quality parameters of library activity. It takes part in the co-ordination of development programmes of libraries. The National Library is run under the authority of the Ministry of Culture.

The founding of the library was linked to the establishment of Charles University in Prague in 1348 by the Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who in 1370 donated books to it. This donation became the basis of college libraries which grew mainly thanks to the bequests and donations of Czech rulers, nobles, university masters and wealthy Prague burghers. When in 1556 Jesuits came to the Czech Lands, they built on the site of the former Dominican monastery of Saint Clement in Prague their Collegium Clementinum, establishing the Order's library there. After the Jesuit rder was dissolved in 1773, the Clementinum Library and other Jesuit libraries in Bohemia devolved to the state. In 1777, Empress Maria Theresa (1740-1780) amalgamated the Jesuit and the university libraries founding the Public Royal and Imperial University Library.

The beginnings of the new library are linked with its first director, Karel Rafael Ungar (1744-1807), who began forming the National Library (Bibliotheca nationalis) of Czech and Slovak literature, including Czech studies in foreign languages. In 1781, Ungar succeeded in obtaining the first statute on legal deposit, valid throughout the Czech lands from 1807 onward. In 1935 the library was renamed National and University Library. In 1958 its name was changed toState Library of the Czechoslovak Republic, and it became the centre of the national library system.

Since 1989, a transformation process has been taking place. In 1990 the library's name was changed to The National Library of the Czech Republic. The position of the National Library as the centre of the public library system was defined in the new Libraries Act of 2001. With support from the Mellon Foundation, library automation using the ALEPH system was begun. Retrospective catalogue conversion is under way; a nationwide electronic union catalogue has been set up, and the Uniform Information Gateway portal has been made accessible. Since 2000, the Czech National Bibliography has been published in electronic format only. Digitization of rare collections is under way and a digital library and archive of Internet resources is being set up.

The National Library of the Czech Republic is involved in international activities, and is a member of IFLA, CENL, LIBER, CERL and other organizations. It is also part of many international development and research projects such as:

LIBECON

MASTER

IDA P

VICODI

PULMAN

CALIMERA

TEL-ME-MOR

M-CAST

ECH:TOPICC

UNESCO Memory of the World

Library Holdings

The National Library administers a collection of six million items. Its rarest part is a collection of just under 15,000 manuscripts and almost 200,000 early books. The core of these collections dates back to the 1370s, linked with the gradual growth of the colleges of Charles University in Prague. A part of the manuscript section of the National Library is a collection of oriental manuscripts comprising 1,200 volumes containing Turkish, Arabic, and Persian manuscripts. The oldest of these dates back to 792. Another interesting part of the National Library collection are the Indian manuscripts written on palm leaves threaded with string.

A component of the National Library is the Slavonic Library housing a valuable collection of literature of the Slav nations and of specialized Slavonic studies literature. Among its 700,000 volumes is a rare collection of old Russian early books, a unique and extensive collection of literature on Russian Revolutionary movements from the beginning of the 20 th century, and on the activities of interwar political exiles from the Soviet Union.

The first - the General Public Libraries Act 430 of July 22, 1919 - was enormously progressive for its time both by European and world standards. The act was passed by the Czechoslovak Parliament, following the formation of the independent Czechoslovak Republic on October 28, 1918. It imposed an obligation on each of the political municipalities to set up a public library within one or two years, equipped with lending facilities, a reading room, and reference materials. In localities with national minorities, the local authorities were further obliged to establish either an independent minority library or at least a special minority department. The act also determined a minimum fee for maintaining and extending the libraries on a per capita basis. Based on the act, library boards endowed with significant authority were created, and in municipalities of over 10,000 inhabitants, the libraries had to be managed by professional librarians. Thanks to this first Czechoslovak act, a dense network of one public library per 813 inhabitants was created within the first decade of the existence of the Republic. By 1929, virtually every locality had its own public library.

The second - the Unified System of Libraries Act 53 of July 1959, approved by parliament during the period under the communist regime, was primarily focused on the strengthening of centralised control over libraries by the setting up of a unified system of libraries, comprising separate networks of libraries - public, school, scientific, university, medical, etc. Each network was headed by a main library that provided methodological assistance to "its libraries". The State Library of the Czechoslovak Republic, presently the National Library, occupied a special position within the system, as did the Central Library Board. The idea of a unified system of libraries was never completely realised; nevertheless, this overtly "ideological" act significantly strengthened the practical co-operation of libraries of different types. It is paradoxical that it remained valid for more than ten years after the political and social changes of November 1989.

After many years of effort and "struggles" for a new act, the library community finally got what it was waiting for. On 29 June 2001, Law No. 257/2001 Coll. of 29 June 2001 on Libraries and Terms of Operating Public Library and Information Services (Library Act) was passed by the Czech Parliament.This, the third act in the history of Czech librarianship, deals with the issue of public library and information services, especially public libraries. It does not, however, exclude libraries of different kinds from joining the "system", provided they offer services to the public. The earlier 1959 act on the unified system of libraries applied to all the libraries operating in what was then Czechoslovakia.The new act determines the conditions under which a particular library can become a part of the "system of libraries" within the spirit of the act. There are two general points:

1. The operator of the library has to ensure equal access for all to public library and information services and other services provided by the library.
2. The operator has to enlist the library in the register of libraries kept by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.

The Ministry of Culture manages the register of libraries as a public access information system. At present, more than 6000 libraries are registered. Many libraries that do not provide public services (e.g. most school libraries) or have not joined are not a part of the system of libraries to which the library act applies.

Basic library services such as book and periodical lending, verbal information, provision of information from public sources, are all free of charge. Libraries can, however, charge fees for other services. The act states that all libraries should be connected to the Internet by the end of 2006.

Libraries covered by this act can obtain state benefits (e.g. in the form of targeted subsidies), and they enjoy an exclusive position as to other related laws and legislative standards (e.g. the copyright act, accounting act).

The library act is linked up with other regulations and recommendations which regulate certain areas of library activities such as inter-library loan services, rules for providing financial subsidies, and standards for providing public library services.

Special regulations also relate to submitting deposit copies. A nationwide deposit copy of all publications is kept by the National Library (2 copies), the Moravian Library in Brno, and the Scientific Library in Olomouc. Regional libraries receive deposit copies of non-periodical publications only from those publishers that are located in their region. A compulsory nationwide deposit copy of periodicals is kept by the regional libraries and some special libraries.

One of the principles governing subsidy programmes appropriations is the obligation to abide by prescribed standards and to make results obtained in the implementation of projects available also to other libraries. Thanks to that principle, the use of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2), the UNIMARC, or, rather MARC21 exchange formats, Z39.50 communication protocol and standards for digitizing and microfilming is now a matter of course in Czech libraries. The long-term emphasis on a consistent use of common standards has brought significant effects in mutual cooperation and sharing of information sources and services in recent years.

In 2000, the Czech government adopted a document "State Information Policies", and prepared a number of programmes in support of exploiting information and communication technologies in all segments of the society. The programme "Public Library and Information Services" (PLIS) designed for libraries and funded by the Ministry of Culture is divided into nine sub-programmes dealing with different areas where information technologies are being used in libraries.

PLIS1 of the Programme's Coordination Centre
PLIS2 Extramural training in information technologies for library staff
PLIS3 Establishment of public library information centres
PLIS4 Digital library and archives for library information services
PLIS5 National programme of retrospective conversion of Czech library catalogues
PLIS6 National programme of digital access to valuable documents - Memoriae Mundi Series Bohemica
PLIS6 National programme for microfilming and di-gital access to documents threatened by degradation of acidic paper - Kramerius
PLIS8 Digital information sources, Uniform Information Gateway
PLIS9 Union catalogue of the Czech Republic, system of national authorities

This programme was complemented by the "Internet for Libraries" project launched by the Ministry of Informatics in 2005. Its aim is to provide high-speed connection to the Internet for all public libraries by the end of 2006. At present, 2500 public libraries have an Internet connection.

With its primary focus on the purchase of licences to electronic information sources, the programme "Information sources for research and development" of the Ministry of Education is absolutely important for the development of modern services in Czech libraries. This programme gave rise to a completely new type of inter-library cooperation because it supported the establishment and operation of a number of library consortia whose objective is a joined purchase and sharing of licences to electronic information sources. University libraries get their support from the "Higher Education Development Fund".

The R&D programme "Providing access to, and protection of, library collections through Internet-based digitization in connection with the building of information society" intended primarily for large libraries is funded by the Ministry of Culture. Medical libraries may draw support from the programme "Public information services in health care" of the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Culture developed two programmes exclusively for public libraries: one is the "Library of the 21st century" programme in support of cultural and public education activities, reading and readership, the other is the "Czech library" programme designed to promote the acquisition of original Czech literary works by public libraries. The Ministry of Culture also pays royalties to authors for the lending of audio documents in libraries, and in the future it will also pay for the lending of books.

Regional administrations fund the "Auxiliary services programme for small public libraries". A new impetus for the development of public libraries has come from programmes and funds of the European Union, and they may become even more important in the future. In the initial period, libraries use the funds mainly for the establishment and operation of premi-ses with public access to the Internet, and for the building and reconstruction of libraries.

Annual funding for subsidy programmes