The National Library of the Czech Republic has a collection of incredible value making it one of the most important libraries within Europe and the world.
Its historical collections are of mainly European and Czech works and consists of much 'Bohemica'. (The Kingdom of Bohemia was a country in the Bohemia region of central Europe from 1198 to 1918. Most of Bohemia is now part of modern-day Czech Republic).
Map of Bohemia 1590
Image uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on October 20th, 2008 by Gumruch.
The Historcal and Music Collections Division is responsible for works from the beginning of literature up t0 1800. This department lays emphasis on interconnecting the traditional library service with that of a virtual library. See below for more information on current projects.
A set of codices donated by Charles IV to Prague University after the foundation of its first college in 1366 forms the core of the manuscript collection. However, there are also oriental manuscripts and Greek papyri in the collection.
Also part of the manuscript collection are unique pieces such as the
- Vysehrad Codex from 1085 which was created for the coronation of the first Czech king Vratislav,
- the Passional of the Abbess Kunhuta from 1312 which was produced in the scriptorium of the Convent of St. George at Prague Castle,
- and the Velislav pictorial bible from the first half of the fourteenth century.
- the surviving parts of Tycho de Brahe's library,
- a collection of Comeniana,
- the personal libraries of Bernard Bolzano, F. X. Salda, and Jan Vlcek,
- and the large private libraries preserved intact of the counts Kinsky and the Prague Lobkowitz library.
PROJECTS
Manuscriptorium
"The Manuscriptorium digital library makes accessible historical book collection not only of the National Library of the Czech Republic but also of other Czech and foreign libraries, archives and museums. It includes both the cataloguing records of original documents and digital copies and the full texts of original documents" (Uhlir 2009).
Adopt a Manuscript
This project was launched in 2005 with the aim of preserving cultural heritage. The main purpose of the adoption is to replace original manuscripts with an artistic copy by academic, restorative painters who would use the materials with which the old masters worked.
In this way the duplicate could be exhibited without putting the original at risk.
It is quite expensive to create an acceptable copy hence asking for people to 'adopt' a manuscript to help fund the project.
Follow this link for more information and a list of works up for adoption.
National Digital Library Project
The Creation of the NDL project has three main aims:
1. The digitisation of a significant part of the Bohemica of the 19th–21st centuries, i.e. books issued in the Czech Republic, written in Czech or discussing the Czech lands. By the end of 2019, we will have digitised a total of more than 50 million pages, hence approximately 300,000 volumes.
2. The long-term preservation of documents in a reliable digital repository, which will provide a space for the safe placement of already digitised documents as well as the digital documents created or acquired in the NDL project and within other projects.
3. Making digital documents accessible in a uniform, user-friendly interface with a high degree of personalisation possible. From a single place, the digitised documents as well as paid online databases will be accessible. This will offer you one instrument to browse extensive sources provided by your library (Hutar 2011).
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
The important work of the National library of the Czech Republic was recognised when they were the first recipient of the UNESCO Jikji Memory of the World Prize in 2005 (beating the National Library of Austrlia).
This was quite an achievement when you consider the floods that devastated the library in 2002. Or perhaps the work put into restoring documents and items after the floods was a contributing factor to wining the prize.
"Is there anything more important to be preserved than the world’s memory? Hardly anything if we want to maintain our human existence on the Earth. Everybody has the right to share the memory of the world: it’s his or her memory, too. That is not enough to preserve and digitize more and more books from our ancient times, but we have to do much more for their better understanding. The idea of the JIKJI prize is one of the ways how to do it" (Jezek 2005).
SPACE
Most libraries face the issues of running out of space. The National Library of the Czech Republic is no different.
In 2006 The National Library of the Czech Republic in cooperation with UIA – Union Internationale des Architectes, International Union of Architects announced The International Architectural Design Competition for the architectural design and choice of an architect for the project documents of The New Building of the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. In 2007 the award was given to the London-based architectural and design practice Future Systems. Future Systems was founded by Jan Kaplicky who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937 but settled in London after the Soviet invasion.
Kaplicky's design created much controversy within the Prague governement and public and will now never be realised. Instead there is now a reconstuction of the Klementinum underway.
"Their plan is to create new places in the library, for example cafe, gallery, bookshop, study rooms so that more and more people will come to the library, not only students and academics but also others.
For that plan they got 1 885 million Kc and their plan is to finish the reconstruction in 2016" (Vranova 2011).
CONCLUSION
Throughout history the National Library of the Czech Republic has faced challenges. Today's biggest challenge is how to preserve and make accessible the vast and valuable collections and to make the world aware of what they are doing. Through various projects and reconstruction of the building they are making this happen.
Bibliography
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