Library of the Centre for Classical Studies
Given the current hygienic-epidemiological situation, the Library of the Centre is open only Mondays, from 12:00 to 17:00, and for returning and borrowings books only. Special hygienical rules apply. For any inquires and further details please contact the head librarian at sima@flu.cas.cz.
tel.: +420 222 828 301 (reading room)
e-mail: knihovna@ics.cas.cz
| Head Librarian | Mgr. Antonín Šíma, Ph.D. | sima@flu.cas.cz |
| Librarians | Mgr. Zdeněk Dvořák | dvorak@ics.cas.cz |
| Mgr. Marta Hoffmanová | hoffmanova@ics.cas.cz | |
| Mgr. Michaela Jůzová | juzova@ics.cas.cz |
The collection of the Library of the Centre for Classical Studies (library regulations are available here) encompasses books and periodicals numbering more than 60 000 volumes, including handbooks, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, editions and databases concerning many branches of the humanities: classical philology and classical studies, medieval studies, philosophy, patristics, theology, church history, political history, history of arts and culture of the Middle Ages etc. The library collection also contains all works made for hire by the Centre staff. Among the exceptionally important publications kept in the library and regularly expanded and supplemented are, apart from foreign monographs, comprehensive series of ancient, early Christian or mediaeval authors in modern, often bilingual editions (Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Loeb Classical Library, Les Belles Lettres, Sources Chrétiennes, Corpus Christianorum, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum). The library subscribes to more than 70 Czech and foreign scholarly journals (the list of all the periodicals available in the library can be downloaded here). Being a prominent specialised library in the Czech Republic, it serves university students, researchers and general public and, through international interlibrary loan service, also other libraries in the Czech Republic and abroad. Its collection has recently been enlarged through gifts of important collections, e. g. a library of the historian Jiří Spěváček, the cultural historian of Czech Middle Ages Pavel Spunar, or the French historian Jean-Pierre Vernant. The library contains a reading room, registered readers are allowed external loans of selected publications. In the library it is also possible to buy the publications and CR-ROMs created by the Centre’s researchers or published by the Centre.
The library developed from a modest collection related to the activities of the once Commission for the Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands at the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts, the initial core of the would-be Centre. Since the establishment of the Centre for Greek, Roman and Latin studies in 1953, the library is an integral part of the institution. Its collection was soon greatly enlarged by books from libraries of grammar schools teaching classical languages, history and culture, which were abolished at the time. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the collection is purposefully complemented and systematically classified with regard to branches of knowledge. In the reading room and room of Greek and Latin authors, the readers have access to more than half of the collection. The remaining books are either delivered immediately from a storage room, or on request from the depository of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Jenštejn. The sister library of the Centre’s library is the Library of the Institute of Philosophy of the CAS.
Catalogues
The electronic catalogue of the Library is accessible through the OPAC interface of the ALEPH system.
At the end of 2019, the data conversion from the old TinLib system into the standard ALEPH system was finished, with nearly 23,000 entries converted. The overview of converted titles and newly processed entries in the ALEPH system are accessible here. The Tinweb interface was deactivated and the search in the TinLib catalogue is possible from the computers in the Library only.
Currently, the systematic processing of books and revisions of the data in the ALEPH system is carried out, according to the newly established system of signatures and locatoin signatures for individual sections of the Library. Therefore, some titles can be unavailable at the moment. These titles are marked Ve zpracování (“Being proccessed”) in the catalogue.
For search within the periodicals you can use the continuously updated interface of the Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic (SKC). For the periodicals registered by the Centre’s Library you have to choose the Sigla vlastníka dokumentu in the field Údaje pro vyhledávání: abb018.
New books acquired by the Library
Electronic information resources accessible from the Library of the Centre for Classical Studies
Researchers and visitors of the Centre for Classical Studies may for research purposes use the following electronic information resources in the library’s study room (employees may access these pre-paid databases from the Centre’s computer network):
Full-text databases for the humanities
- Brepolis Latin Complete
- JSTOR (Journal Storage). Within the JSTOR database you can browse through the newly accessible Arts & Sciences I – XV collection which enables access to more than 300 titles from philosophy, religion and classics. The list of journals included, together with the links to full-texts, is available here.
- EBSCO Academic Search Ultimate. Nearly 900 titles indexed for the philosophy and religion, more info here.
- ProQuest Central. Approx. 500 full-text journals within the philosophy and related humanities. Selection from Arts & Humanities Database, Philosophy Database a Religion Database, more info here.
Bibliographic and citation databases
Encyclopaedias and dictionaries
Since the 2018, the “Portál e-časopisů FLÚ” (The Institute of Philosophy E-Journals) is also accessible from the computer network of the Centre for Classical Studies and from the Centre’s Library. This portal allows the access to full-texts of all subscribed journals from within one spot. More info here, direct access here.
With the remote access feature, the users and researchers may also use the databases and collections subscribed by the Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences (the overview is to be found here). For example, the Cambridge Journals Online and the Oxford Journals Online are accessible.
