LI-200001

LI-200001 Hlavní stránka Národní knihovny ČR

Zprávy za rok 2000

OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE NETWORK LIBRARY PROGRAM MATCHING FUNDS IMPROVING SERVICE TO USERS


REFERENCE CENTRE
OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY
OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC



Final Report of
the Project - 4 - CZE - 10/99


Submitted by: Hanuš Hemola
Director of Public Services
National Library of the Czech Republic
Klementinum 190, 110 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic
phone: +420-2-21 663 209
fax: +420-2-21 663 261
e-mail: hanus.hemola@nkp.cz
http://www.nkp.cz/


Prague, 1 October 2000



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The National Library of the Czech Republic, the largest and also the main library in the country, continually strives to improve services to the users. The Reference Centre has been planned as an innovative pioneer project in the Czech libraries environment. When fully functional it will provide users with free internet access and integrated information and reference services. The objective of reader services restructuring is to provide by developing electronic services the same conditions for local and remote users. The mission of the Reference Centre is to assist users to orient themselves in the contemporary information environment and to exploit information resources in traditional or electronic form. Unfortunately because of budgetary constrains we could not progress as quickly as we would have wished to.

On June 21, 1999, the Reference Centre was open on trial basis and only partially electronically equipped. The cost of reconstruction and furnishings was covered from the library budget and only a proportion of electronic equipment was paid for by the donations.

The National Library of the Czech Republic is thus applying for the Open Society Institute grant to fully equip with computer technology its Reference Centre.

Goals

We endeavour to establish information environment for the National Library community usual in modern libraries. In the project we planned following new services which will brought us closer to our goal:
  • free access to internet for all registered National Library users (We consider this very important as for many users especially students the home internet usage is not affordable.)
  • internet and National Library databases access for visually disabled
  • regular instruction-in-library use sessions for the National Library users
Projected further development of the Reference Centre:
  • access to paid resources on internet, such as ANOPRESS and FirstSearch (The National Library plans to expand this offer.)
  • introduction of Document Delivery service (DODO) (This project should be ready by the Fall of this year and if everything would go as intended, in January 2000 DODO will become one of the standard services of the Reference Centre.)
  • Electronic Reference Service for remote users
Discharge of the goals set in the grant proposal

As stated in the project, we were able to create in the Reference Centre a top class work space for the users of the National Library of the Czech Republic which represents not only a pleasant physical area but serves dually as gate to the National Library and as a gate to the world of information in the internet environment. The Reference Centre of the National Library was after three month trial run officially opened on October 6, 1999. Almost at this very celebratory moment we have received a generous financial support from the OSI which provided further impetus for improving the Centre. In January 2000, the National Library of the Czech Republic received another financial backing for the years 2000 to 2003 in the range of 561 000 USD. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education has thus decided to approve our grant proposal to make available in the Czech Republic OCLC FirstSearch and other important information resources under the umbrella of its Programme LI 2000 Information Resources for Research and Development. It must be added that the fact of OSI Grant for the Reference Centre equipment played an important role in obtaining the Ministry's approval of this grant.

Given the fact that in the first six months of 2000 the National Library was switching to the upgraded library automation system (ALEPH 500), the installation of the new workstations was delayed because all our systems people were working very hard on this monumental task. Planned hardware - 17 PC (for details please refer to the Final Financial Report) was purchased in February 2000 and installed in the Reference Centre during July 2000 closing. On July 31, 2000, it became fully operational and available to the public. From July 1999 to the end of June 2000 we registered almost 40 000 users in the Reference Centre. Since the installation of additional 17 workstations purchased from the funds of OSI Grant (as of July 31, 2000), the daily quota of users is roughly around 200. We can say that the computer capacity of the Reference Centre is used to its utmost.

During the year 2000 we were able, also thanks to the OSI support, to increase our offer of the information resources in such a way that at the present time our users have access to:
  • Reference collection of encyclopaedias, language and subject dictionaries, biographies, bibliographies, yearbooks, and various other references sources shelved by subject
  • Databases of the NL - ALEPH system
  • Databases of the NL - CDS/ISIS system - NL internal access only
  • Databases on CD-ROMs - more than 60 titles - NL internal access only
  • Scanned catalogues of the NL
  • Anopress - searchable fulltext databank Tam-Tam
  • Albertina Data - Company Monitor
  • Ebsco - provides over 3,000 full-text journals, newspapers and news wires as well as over 1,300 pamphlets and full-text reference books primarily in the social sciences and humanities. A medical database (MEDLINE) is also included
  • OCLC FirstSearch - access to 13 databases including OCLC WorldCat, UnionLists and other databases
  • Web of Science - WoS - access to the ISI Citation Databases - Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts&Humanities Citation Index, which cover thousands of research journals across hundreds of disciplines
  • Periodical Contents Index - PCI - PCI is an electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1990/1991. Every article is indexed. PCI currently indexes over 10.75 million articles in 3,142 journals. PCI's scope is world-wide and includes journals in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish and other Western languages.
  • Periodical Contents Index Full Text - PCI Full Text - PCI Full Text is a major online periodical archive which makes the full image of periodical articles in the humanities and social sciences, from 1770 to 1990, available in digital form.
  • Virtual reference library with pointers to useful internet resources
Within the frame of the above mentioned project supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education, by the end of the year we will make available other important information resources:
  • World Biographical Archives on microfiche
  • World Bibliographies on CD-ROM
  • Russian State Archive of Literature and Art on CD-ROM
  • Patrologia Latina Database on CD-ROM
  • Acta Sanctorum on CD-ROM
  • European Register of Microform Masters (EROMM) on line access and CD-ROM
  • American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES) on line access
The Reference Centre web home page has become the gate to the information potential of the National Library in the truest sense of the word, and at the same time the gate to the information available elsewhere in the world.
See addresses:
sluz_services.htm - in English
sluz_sluzby.html - in Czech

Out of the planned services the only one we have not been able to provide so far is Document Delivery. We had it ready for testing in the first half of 2000. With the new copyright law now in force in the Czech Republic the conditions for photoduplication and other copying methods changed drastically. These legal changes require major changes in the software and in the conditions and methods of this service. Therefore we expect to have in the standard regime at the beginning of 2001.
For more detailed information on the mission, information resources and services accessible in the Reference Centre of the National Library of the Czech Republic please refer to the following addresses:
sluz_refc.htm - in English
sluz_refc.htm - in Czech

Conclusion

Computer technology installed in the Reference Centre as planned thanks to the OSI financial support opened all information resources of the National Library and provided a gate to the information available beyond the physical boundaries not only of the National Library but of the whole country. Thus OSI paved the way of the National Library to the 21st century and enabled it to fulfil the core idea of the whole project - the Reference Centre - the gate to the world of information for all under even conditions.


Final financial report on the project
"Reference Centre of the National Library of the Czech Republic"
Project - 4-CZE-10/99


Grant starting date:
Grant completion date:
Grant award amount:
15 October, 1999
1 October 2000
$ 24 520

OSI funds were deposited in the National Library of the Czech Republic account at Komerční banka on November 3, 1999 at the then valid exchange rate of Kč 34,24 for 1 USD, in total of Kč 839 589,32.

These funds were used for purchase of 17 workstations for the Reference Centre as set out in the project. During the month of July, 2000, the National Library was closed to the public in order, amongst other things, to install and configure in the Reference Centre 17 new workstations and reconfigure the original ones for the opening on July 31, 2000.

The balance of the account is Kč 19,92 which, according to the current exchange rate of 40,93 for 1 USD, comes to less than 50 cents. This amount is so small that to return it to OSI, as stated in our agreement, would cost us several times more in bank fees. We propose to add this money to the funds budgeted for the Centre supplies - toner, paper, diskettes, etc.

Workstations and software Amount Price in Kč
Windows NT 4,0 CZ OLP A AE 17 30166,5
PC AMD K6-2-450MHz, 128 MB RAM, HDD 4,3GB, FDD, CD-ROM, 17' Monitor, Multimedia Sound Kit 6 296826,0
PC AMD K6-2-450MHz, 64 MB RAM, HDD 4,3GB, FDD, CD-ROM, 17' Monitor, Multimedia Sounder Kit 11 512576,9
OSI Grant funds   839 589,42
Spent   839 569,40
Balance   19,92
Balance in USD   0,49

PhDr. Hanuš Hemola
Director of Public Services
The National Library of the Czech Republic



4.1.2002 Hanuš Hemola | Projekt LI-200001 | Nahoru |