Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS HAGYOMÁNY – LIBRARY AND TRADITION

J. Zahradil course of this. The Academy Library gained approximately about 2.000 items a year this way during the second half of the 20s. Principal changes took place in the sphere of publication-processing. Cataloguing was finished in 1928 and the whole stock was divided into 14 compartments according to subjects. Nevertheless, the work which began so hopefully stopped in 1932 and the spatial insufficiency increased. Above all, there were some conjunctural intentions to give the library up. The occupation did not have such a critical impact on the Academy library as it had on the Library of the Society; international book exchange, however, was stopped and its use declined, but the stocks were, with some restrictions, still accessible. Processing of stock was altered. Registration according to format was used instead of depending on subjects; this measure was, however, adopted in a new part of the Library only. In 1944 the Academy Library, as well as the Library of the Society, was evacuated from Prague. After 1945 the Academy managed to carry through the idea of institutional support for research: the academic institutes were thus founded. This was naturally reflected in the support of the Library, which started to expand in a relatively short time. One part of the Library - the Exchange Department - worked in a former savings bank building on the National Avenue in Prague, in which the Academy had its headquarters since the autumn of 1945. In 1946 the Library exchanged books with 299 inland and 314 foreign scientific institutions. The Library was moved again to Prague during 1947-1952. Due to lack of space only a new part of the Library was installed first and the transfer of the whole Library to the Academy location was not realized before the beginning of 1952. The Library kept 76,000 items at the time. The foundation of the so-called First Republic was associated with an intention to create institutional bases of science - just as it was common abroad. Many institutions were founded, some among them of a short life only and without great importance. Masaryk's Academy of Labour was created due to Ing. S. Spaiek's initiation. It took as its task "to organize technical works, to contribute to the economical employment of the natural resources of the Czechoslovak state". Its Library concentrated on the acquisition and processing of mainly technical literature, but natural sciences and economy found place there, too; works concerned with the organization of labour also created an important part. The stock contained, beside books and journals, firm literature, too, which was divided into 40 groups depending on the branches. Use of stocks in the Library and Reading Room was rather intensive. Users were defined by themes, processed by the Library, and were of a highly specialized level. The Library went through the period of occupation rather well, it had nevertheless to change its name to the Library of the Czech Technical Academy 108 „ Thoughts in the library "