History of the Academy of Science Library (ASL)

The Library of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic (ASL) is the direct successor of the Main Library of the Academy of Science of Czechoslovakia (ML), which was established concurrently with the foundation of the Academy of Science of Czechoslovakia, on 17 November 1952. The original collection of the Main Library (ML) was composed of the permanent collections of literature from the libraries of the Royal Czech Society of Science, the Czech Academy of Science and Arts, and the Masaryk Academy of Work. Thanks to this solid base even at its inception the ML was the second most valuable library in Prague for its general science collection, and the third oldest Czech scientific library. At present it administers around 1 million volumes including an interesting collection of archival documents, manuscripts, incunabula, and old prints (around 25,000 volumes).

Of the oldest collections of the ML, and still belonging to ASL, are those of the Royal Czech Society of Science (RCSS), which in 1784 was recognized by Emperor Josef II as the first scientific institute in the whole of the Austrian Empire. In spite of the initial difficulties with financing for the library, when members of the society used the collection of the university library, the library of the Prague planetarium, and the library of Strahov monastery, the collection of RCSS expanded by 1836 to 13 thousand volumes and by 1939 to over 93 thousand volumes. During the transfer of the collection to the ML, the RCSS library had 100 thousand volumes. Another important contribution to the ML were the collections of the libraries of the Czech Academy of Science and Arts (CASA), the compilation of which was begun at the beginning of 1891. Within two years, CASA was sending and exchanging publications with 55 institutes. Throughout it existence it continuously faced a shortage of space for the storage of its collection. Before the foundation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (CAS), there were 75,927 volumes in this collection.

The third book collection that was placed into the coronet of the ML was the library of the Masaryk Academy of Work (MAW), which was established in 1920 and whose collections consisted of mainly technical, scientific and economic literature. By the end of 1952, the library contained 30 thousand volumes, most of which had been obtained through donation.

The CAS main library opened its doors on 1 January 1953 on the premises of the former Czech Academy of Science and Art at Národní třída in Prague. The first director of the institute was PhDr. František Horák, who was responsible for the considerable growth of the ML collection, especially in its historical collections and its increase in publication exchanges with foreign institutes. From 1963-1995, the library also obtained the stipulating legal deposit duty.

For the optimal solution to the establishment of a network of academic libraries and science information centres, the Governing Body of Scientific Information was established in 1961. In 1967 the Main Library of the Academy of Science and the Governing Body of Scientific Information was consolidated into the newly formed Main Library - Centre of Scientific Information of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (ML-CSI).

In 1967 ML-CSI was incorporated into what was called a joint workplace and consolidated into the ranks of scientific research tasks, both institutional and departmental. In 1967-1992 the director of ML-CSI was PhDr. Jiří Zahradil. There was an increase in the attention devoted to the co-ordination of collection stocking in the Scientific Information System (SIS) and the libraries of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science (CAS). There was significant development in acquisitions and an increase in the exchange of international periodicals. Seminar series and supplemental training courses were organized for the libraries of SIS. On 31 December 1992, in accordance with a change in a national legal regulation based on Law ČNR no. 283/1992 Coll., the foundation of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic and simultaneously the Library of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic (ASL) went into effect.

In 1992 PhDr. Ivana Kadlecová was appointed as director. Under her leadership, the electronic cataloguing of documents and ISIS systems was begun. Then in 2004 there was the implementation of the ALEPH system, which made it possible for ASL users to gain on-line access to user accounts through the web. At the same time, she also began to devote great attention to obtaining financial resources through grant programs for the purchase of EIZ. Thus it was possible to obtain access to things such as the Web of Knowledge database. As a consequence of the floods in 2002, ASL set up a drying and disinfecting unit in the depository at Jenštejn, which was utilized by over 20 libraries whose collections had been damaged by the floods. In 2004 a Digitizing centre was established that provides services to institutions within the Academy of Science as well as others.  

Since 1 January  2007 ASL has been ranked among public research institutes.

Since 1 June 2007, the director of the library has been Ing. Martin Lhoták.