Collections Management

Collections Management

It is a unit on the level of a division, managed by a director.

The basic mission of the division is to effectively administer, build up and preserve the NL modern book collections, i.e. the National Archival Collection, Universal Library Collections, Reserve Collections and other partial collections. The division is comprehensively engaged also in other professional activities connected with the organisation, revision and storage of the aforementioned collections. It is responsible for the selection and preparation of the NL modern library holdings for digitization; it coordinates digitization activities within the wide range of Czech libraries and other institutions.  Within the scope of its professional competence, it provides conceptual, coordination, methodological, advisory and consultancy services to other organizations including the Ministry of Culture of the CR; authorized to do so are also individual departments within the scope of their competence. Staff of this division participate in research activities of the NL in the field of permanent preservation, effective management, digitization and availability of modern documents including a new area of the so-called digital humanities.

Collections Organization
It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by a head.
It is the output place of the cataloguing line, i.e. by means of providing new accessions with shelfmarks it organizes the arrangement of library collections in stacks and makes their adjustment, it proposes changes in the system of shelfmarks, organization and building up the collections, it manages local catalogues and lists. It makes corrections and redactions of selected records in OPAC, it provides documentary evidence and arranges for binding of volumes according to the agreed criteria in an internal or external binding office; it participates in checks of the completeness of accessions passed through the processing lines and sends the results to particular departments.

Collections Revision

It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by a head.

It makes routine periodic and occasional revisions of library collections in accordance with valid legal regulations, it reviews the cases of temporarily missing library units, it submits the units to be written off and, when approved, it writes them off the NL collections. Based on the results of revisions, it prepares materials for up-dates and acquisitions to the Universal Collections, it participates in searches for replacements of library losses. It selects and marks library units that need special preservation and builds up a collection available in a special protective regime. It submits proposals for reformatting the most damaged publications and keeps records of the progress of their further processing. It monitors and registers moves of library collections for the needs of reference libraries, it registers deposited collections, revision losses, write-offs and other card indexes for the need of the revision including their gradual transfer into automated databases.

National Archival Collections Management

It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by a head.

It builds up, protects, permanently preserves and in accordance with particular regulations it provides access to the National Archival Collections, i.e. the archival collection of domestic and foreign Bohemical documents, both printed and non-printed ones, including the periodical literature. It is an output department of the processing line for the National Archival Collections; it provides signs and adjustments, it selects publications to be bound, it builds up and manages local catalogues and card indexes. It participates in checking the completeness of accessions through the processing lines and sends the results to particular departments. It proposes the individual documents and their sets to be included in the National Archival Collections. It provides bibliographic information, consultancy and advisory services in the field of Bohemical literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. It gradually transfers the data about library units kept in the National Archival Collections into the online database. It manages the operation of the special National Archival Collections Reading Room. It collaborates on projects focused on digitization, preservation, and mapping of the NL holdings.

Universal Collections Management

It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by a head.

It manages the Universal Library Collections, the Study Collections and other partial collections, and participates in their organization. It is responsible for their purposeful and safe storage as well as doing checks in this sphere; it submits proposals for measures to particular organizational units. It provides access to the Universal Library Collections, particularly it delivers the requested items from the stacks, puts the returned volumes back to their proper places and shelves new accessions, it collaborates on their adjustment and organizes moves of the collections. It participates in entering the data about damaged and reformatted titles into OPAC and it is involved in surveys of the collections condition and their minor repairs. It carries out basic revisions of arrangement in individual shelfmarks.

Central Depository Library

It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by a head. It is responsible for building and managing the NL Reserve Collections.  It is responsible for building a new Central Depository Library, the transformation of the existing NL Reserve Collections into the Central Depository Library and for its future management and acquisition. It negotiates with other public libraries about the methods of discarding documents from their holdings, it actively takes over these documents and jointly decides about their use in the NL modern collections. It collaborates on projects focused on digitization, preservation, and mapping of the NL holdings.

It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by a head.

It participates in forming the concept and strategy of digitization of modern library collections at a national level. It coordinates the selection of titles for digitization with respect to strategic objectives and current needs of the individual NL units. Regarding the selection of titles for digitization, it communicates with other memory institutions that manage book collections. It manages the tool Navrhnout k digitalizaci [Propose for Digitization]. It addresses copyright holders for possible cooperation on digitization and it physically ensures the requests for loans of missing volumes intended for the completion of titles inside and outside the NL. It prepares, negotiates, concludes, and registers the contracts on loans for the purpose of digitization, as well as the replication agreements and the microfilm deposit agreements. The department coordinates the National Sub-Programme VISK 7, in which it leads the consultancy activities and controls the projects of individual applicants. It prepares partial statistics of the programme implementation, it organizes regular VISK 7 seminars, and it communicates with individual workplaces. On behalf of the NL it prepares a project for this sub-programme. It also actively participates in implementing other activities included in the grant mechanism of the Ministry of Culture of the CR, like the deacidification of documents endangered by the degradation of acid paper, the survey of physical condition of modern holdings including mapping of the structure of original owners, or the purchase of cardboard necessary for the production of protective storage boxes. It prepares and implements research and development projects focused on the development of working tools, procedures and methodologies in the field of collections management. It keeps the agenda of stored microfilms, it is responsible for their registration and control. It ensures promotion of the results of research projects and their application in the form of lectures, expert presentations, and publishing activities.

Library Collection Selection for Reformatting
It is a unit on the level of a department, managed by head. It selects and prepares library documents for digitizing, it checks their physical condition and the state of cataloguing, it examines duplicates of the selected documents. Based on performed basic findings it decides on further cataloguing. It lends documents in ALEPH System and keeps records on the selected documents in the Register of Digitizing. It creates basic data files (metadata) for further processing. In its work it adheres to agreed standards and recommendations. Within the scope of its competence it proposes methodology, system changes and standards, and it provides metodological and consultancy service. It is involved in the operation of the National Digital Library and in implementing other national and European projects, it participates in research and development.