Library

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Library of the Institute of Botany, CAS

 

The library of the Institute of Botany is ranked within the public library and informational service system. It is described as a research library with a specialized collection that is used mainly to meet the needs of scientific research centers. Even though the library mainly serves the employees from the Institute of Botany and researchers from various other institutions, library materials are available to the wider public at no cost. It also provides bibliographic, reference and factual information.

The library works with the National library of the Czech Republic, and with the Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences  and participates in the building up of joint catalogues.  Information on our library’s collections can be found on the web pages of the National library (information about international journals) and on the web pages of the Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences (information on some of our collections) or on our library’s web pages.

Focus of the Library

The library of the Institute of Botany has a long-term goal of expanding the library collection that focuses mainly on the botany topics that are priority for the Institute. These topics include the taxonomy of plants and fungi (except that of algae and cyanobacteria the literature for which is collected in Třeboň), mapping plants, phytocenology and vegetation mapping, plant ecology, and the history of botanical research in Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic. Over the years private collections that we have managed to obtain have been included in the library, making our library one of the most important literature sources in Central Europe.Specifically, these include the following sets/collections:

  • Flora of temperate zones of both hemispheres with few representatives of flora from the tropic areas. The collections for Europe and especially Central Europe are very complete. An abundant amount of flora from the former Soviet Union is also available.
  • Taxonomic literature: the library has book and offprint collections from several well-known 20th century Czech taxonomists, e.g., Karel Domin, Josef Holub and Ivan Klášterské. Literature on lower plants was inherited from Zdeněk Pilous (a large bryology collection) and a large lichenology library from Antonín Vězda.
  • Phytocenological literature: in this part of the library we have the most valuable collection of Jaromír Klika. This collection covers a substantial part of phytocenological literature in Europe from the first half of the 20th century. Other parts include the collections of Rudolf Mikyška and Miloš Deyl, and currently the book collections of the married couple Zdena and Robert Neuhäusl.
  • Hydrobotanical literature including the collections of Slavomil Hejné and Bohuslav Fott (algology) can be found in the library in Třeboň.

The library collection located in the main library in Průhonice (Main castle, 2nd floor) contains of 70 000 books while the library of scientific division II in Třeboň has a collection with approximately 20 000 books. New titles are being bought, or can be borrowed from exchange partners from around the world.

The library’s journal collection also contains older Czech journals. International journals are mainly from the beginning of the 1960s when the Institute of Botany became an independent institution. Throughout the years many of the journals have been received in exchange for the journal Folia Geobotanica (the library currently receives 100 international periodicals in this type of exchange) and the bibliographic series published by the Institute of Botany. Journals from the 1970s and 1980s are thus fairly well represented even though during those times the purchasing of international literature was quite restricted. Overall about 200 journals can be found in the library with about 500 new issues arriving each year. Various offprints make up a significant part of our collections. The library and information collections do not contain only classical published forms of information but also electronic information sources.

Searching the book collection

The sigla of the Průhonice library of the Institute of Botany is ABB502 and of the Třeboň library JHB502.

Průhonice Library

Head: Ing. Veronika Macáková
E-mail: mvs@ibot.cas.cz ; veronika.macakova@ibot.cas.cz
Tel.: +420 271 015 218, 277, 242

Opening hours

Monday 8:30 – 12:00 closed
Tuesday closed 13:00 – 15:30
Wednesday 8:30 – 12:00 13:00 – 15:30
Thursday closed closed
Friday 8:30 – 12:00 closed

Třeboň Library

Head: Marie Jakšová
E-mail: marie.jaksova@ibot.cas.cz
Tel.: +420 380 720 305

Opening hours

Monday 8:00 – 11:00 13:00 – 15:00
Tuesday closed 13:00 – 15:00
Wednesday 8:00 – 11:00 13:00 – 14:30
Thursday closed closed
Friday 8:00 – 11:00 closed