National Library (Czech Republic)
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The National Library of the Czech Republic () is the central library of the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
. It is directed by the
Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...
. The library's main building is located in the historical Clementinum building in the centre of
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, where approximately half of its books are kept. The other half of the collection is stored in the district of Hostivař. The National Library is the biggest library in the Czech Republic, housing around 6 million documents. The library currently has 20 627 registered readers. Although comprising mostly Czech texts, the library also stores older material from Turkey, Iran and India. The library also houses books for
Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...
.


History

In the 13th century, the ''Studium generale'' school was founded in the Dominican
monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
in Prague's
Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...
. This school, including its library, merged with the university in the 14th century. In 1556,
monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
s of the
Jesuit Order The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 by ...
erected a
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
, named ''Clementinum'', on the remains of the Dominican monastery. From 1622 on, the Jesuits also administered the
Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...
, and all their libraries were accommodated in the Clementinum. After the
suppression of the Jesuits Suppression may refer to: Laws * Suppression of Communism Act *Suppression order a type of censorship where a court rules that certain information cannot be published * Tohunga Suppression Act 1907, an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand aimed ...
, the university became a state institution in 1773, and in 1777 its library was declared "Imperial-Royal Public and University Library" by
Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...
. Even after the splitting of the university into a Czech and a German university in 1882, the library remained as a joint institution. In 1918, the Public and University Library was taken over by the government of the newly founded
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
. In 1924, the Slavonic Library (''Slovanská knihovna'') was founded, and moved to the Clementinum in 1929; it is still an autonomous part of the National Library. In 1935, the library was renamed "National and University Library" (''Národní a univerzitní knihovna''). In the same year, a law on the
legal deposit Legal deposit is a legal requirement that a person or group submit copies of their publications to a repository, usually a library. The number of copies required varies from country to country. Typically, the national library is the primary reposit ...
copy duty was introduced – a practice dating back to 1781, when Prague
printers Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James Printer (1 ...
had to hand in legal deposit copies of their prints to the library. Although Czech universities and colleges were closed after the
German occupation of Czechoslovakia German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
in 1939, the library remained open under the name of "Municipal and University Library" (''Zemská a univerzitní knihovna''). In 1958, all large Prague libraries were merged into the single centralized State Library of the Czechoslovak Republic (''Státní knihovna CSR''). In 1990, the hitherto last renaming of the library resulted in its current name: National Library of the Czech Republic. A new storage building, the Central Depository in Hostivař, was inaugurated in 1996.


Collections

The most precious medieval manuscripts preserved in the National Library are the Codex Vyssegradensis and the
Passional of Abbes Kunigunde The Passional of Abbess KunigundeAlternative names: ''Passional of Abbess Cunegund'', ''Passional of Abbess Kunhuta''. is an illuminated Latin manuscript commissioned by Prague Benedictine Abbess Kunigunde of Bohemia, daughter of King Ottokar II ...
.


Digitisation

The National Library of the Czech Republic began with their
digitisation Digitization is the process of converting information into a Digital data, digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti ...
efforts in 1992 in collaboration with the Czech company AiP Beroun. In these efforts, the National Library conducted pioneer work on a global scale in the creation of digitization standards. Later, it got involved in a number of European projects, in which it came to additional developments particularly standards regarding manuscripts and old prints. It also supported several pilot projects at the time of their creation and the first years of the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
Memory of the World Programme UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...
(with the programme's first pilot project being from the National Library of the Czech Republic in 1993). The library won international recognition in 2005 as it received the inaugural
Jikji Prize UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It call ...
from
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
's
Memory of the World Programme UNESCO's Memory of the World (MoW) Programme is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, decay over time and climatic conditions, as well as deliberate destruction. It ca ...
for its efforts in digitising old texts. In its first 13 years since 1992, the project accomplished the digitisation of 1,700 documents and made them publicly available. The National Library makes its digital content available in the digital libraries ''Manuscriptorium'' (http://www.manuscriptorium.com/en) and ''Kramerius'' (http://kramerius5.nkp.cz). Manuscriptorium comprises more than 111,000 manuscripts and old prints, with almost 84,000 of them contributed by the National Library and the remainder from 138 partners from 24 countries. Since 2008, when
Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...
, the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
's digital platform for
cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...
, came into existence, Manuscriptorium contributes manuscripts and old prints digitised by libraries all over the Czech Republic and by other partners to the Europeana platform and several other specialised portals, including professional academic Resource Discovery services, e.g. of EBSCO, ProQuest and ExLibris. In a collaborative project with
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
, additional old prints and early 19th century books from the Slavonic Library have been digitised, with altogether more than 177,000 books digitised by Google (as of October 2018). These books are accessible through the
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
digital library as well as through the National Library's Catalogue of Old Prints and the Catalogue of the Slavonic Library, and the old prints gradually also through Manuscriptorium. The Kramerius digital library contains digitised documents published after the year 1800. So far, more than 2,000 periodical series have been digitised. The number of digitized books continues to grow, especially after mass digitization of modern prints in context of the National Digital Library project.


Proposed new building

In 2006, the Czech parliament approved funding for the construction of a new library building on Letna plain, between Hradčanská metro station and
Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...
's football ground, Letná stadium. In March 2007, following a
request for tender An invitation to tender (ITT, also known as a call for bids or a request for tenders) is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business activ ...
, Czech architect Jan Kaplický was selected by a jury to undertake the project, with a projected completion date of 2011. Later in 2007 the project was delayed following objections regarding its proposed location from government officials including Prague Mayor
Pavel Bém Pavel Bém (born 18 July 1963) is a Czech Republic, Czech physician and politician. Between 28 November 2002 and 30 November 2010 he served as the List of mayors of Prague, Mayor of the Capital City of Prague, and re-elected in 2006. On 19 Nove ...
and President
Václav Klaus Václav Klaus (; born 19 June 1941) is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second ...
. Plans for the building had still not been decided in February 2008, with the matter being referred to the Office for the Protection of Competition in order to determine if the tender had been won fairly. Later in 2008, Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička announced the end of the project, following a ruling from the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
that the tender process had not been carried out legally.


Incidents

The library was affected by the
2002 European floods In August 2002, a week of intense rainfall produced flooding across a large portion of Europe. It reached the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine and Russia. The event killed 2 ...
, with some documents moved to upper levels to avoid the excess water. Over 4,000 books were removed from the library in July 2011 following flooding in parts of the main building. There was a fire at the library in December 2012, but nobody was injured in the event.


See also

*
List of national and state libraries A national library is established by the government of a nation to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, they rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valua ...


References


External links

* {{Authority control 1777 establishments in Europe Organizations established in 1777
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
Libraries in the Czech Republic Buildings and structures in Prague Culture in Prague History of Prague Libraries established in 1777