O R I G I N O F T H E L I B R A R Y
The library of "prohibited books" arose from the need to collect in one place and to provide wider public access to the production of exile and samizdat publishers and thus to fill in one of the "blank spots" of our recent history. We are convinced that one of the pillars of democracy is the citizen's right of access to information without any kind of obstacles, and we are trying to contribute to the fulfillment of this right. In order for us to provide this service, the library must be private and independent.
After a year of working to overcome many legal, financial, accommodation, and other problems, we succeeded in opening the library on October 22,1990, on Podskalská Street, with the financial and technical assistance of the Czechoslovak Charter 77 Foundation and with the participation of many noted representatives of culture, including the President of the Republic.
Subsequent activity of the library was made possible by the generous help of many like-minded supporters. Thus there was created in the Czech lands a truly unique and irreplaceable library, which until then had been lacking here.
The basis of the library was the archival copies of the samizdat Edice Popelnice, which Jiří Gruntorád issued, and further publications acquired by him during the period of "normalization" through purchase or exchange. The collection then consisted of about 2000 books, and a representative collection of magazines and other documents.
T H E S O C I E T Y O F L I B R I P R O H I B I T I
In view of the fact that the library needed the status of a legal entity, on April 24, 1991, we established and registered with the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic a non-profit association of citizens - The Society of Libri Prohibiti - whose primary goal is securing the operation of our library and support in completing its collections. Members' contributions are voluntary.
Among the founding members of the society are the writers Václav Havel, Ivan Klíma, Hana Ponická, Zdeněk Urbánek, Ludvík Vaculík, and Jan Vladislav. Also rector emeritus of Charles University in Prague, Radim Palouš; rector emeritus of Masaryk University in Brno, Milan Jelínek; the former director of the Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Vilém Prečan; the former Minister of Culture, Pavel Tigrid; journalist and former general director of Czech Radio, Vlastimil Ježek; former director of the Masaryk Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jaroslav Opat; director of the Center for Theoretical Studies at Charles University and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Ivan M. Havel; and the distinguished Catholic teacher, theologian, and publisher Oto Mádr.
The society has 180 members today. In addition to the named founders they include the writers Jan Beneš, Jiří Gruša, Alexandr Kliment, Petr Král, Pavel Šrut, Ota Ulč, and Jan Vodňanský; literary scholars Jiří Brabec and František Kautman; theologians Milan Balabán and Jakub Trojan; the former Czech ambassador to Bulgaria, Petr Pospíchal; Mirko Janeček, publisher of Kanadské listy; publisher Karel Jadrný; and other exile and samizdat publishers, publicists, and friends of the library.
At the general assembly of the Society of Libri Prohibiti on February 22, 2000, new bylaws were accepted and a committee was elected with Radim Palouš as chairman, Ivan M. Havel as vice-chairman, and other members Oldřich Černý (Geneva), Zdeňka Gruntorádová, and Jiří Gruntorád, who is also the statutory representative. New committee of our civic association elected last year is represented by new chairman Ivan M. Havel, vice-chairman Oldřich Černý members of committee are Zdeňka Gruntorádová and statutory representativ Jiří Gruntorád. Michal Holeček, one of the founders, became a new member of the committee. The Society of Libri Prohibiti invites all interested people who can and want in any way to help our library, to become members.
T H E C U R R E N T S T A T E O F T H E L I B R A R Y ' S C O L L E C T I O N S
The library consists of collections of samizdat and exile literature, of an archive of documents, and an audiovisual section- in all more than 25,000 library units and over 1900 periodical titles.
We expand the collections through purchases, exchange, permanent loans, and gifts from friends, both at home and abroad. We make copies, including electronic copies, of borrowed materials which we do not have in the archive in the original and also of valuable, unique materials, and we lend these copies for use in our reading room. The library's collection is divided into the following sections:
1 . C z e c h S a m i z d a t M o n o g r a p h s a n d P e r i o d i c a l s
The fund has more than 13,100 units from the 1950's to the l980's, both in editions (e.g., Edice Expedice, Petlice, Popelnice, Česká expedice, Kvart, Kde domov můj, etc.- approximately 100 editions and publishers), and also publications not released in editions. We have over 360 titles of periodicals (e.g., Information about Charter 77, Information about the Church, Revolver Revue, Vokno, Historické studie, Kritický sborník, Střední Evropa, etc.), and all the significant periodicals are complete.
2 . C z e c h E x i l e M o n o g r a p h s a n d P e r i o d i c a l s
The collection includes over 6500 units, representing 35 publishers which had a continuous program of editions, and more than 400 individual publishers and institutions which issued publications in Czech. We have the complete productions of the following publishers: 68' Publishers, Index, Poezie mimo domov, Rozmluvy, Opus bonum, Arkýř, Konfrontace, Edice
satiry, Framar, Moravian Library, Sklizeň, etc. We also have more than 760 titles of exile periodicals, including complete editions of Archa, Svědectví, Listy, Studie, Proměny, 150,000 slov, Obrys, Západ, Reportér, Rozmluvy, Hlas domova, Text, Kanadské listy, Sklizeň, Okno, Modrá revue, Hovory s pisateli, Perspektivy, Bohemia, Skutečnost, České slovo, Národní politika, Právo lidu, Paternoster, Zpravodaj Čechů a Slováků ve Švýcarsku, Nový život, and others, including the period from the end of the 1940's to the present.
3. Monographs and Periodicals of the First and Second War Resistance
The collection contains 75 units of legionnaires' literature from the First World War, 780 monographs of the Czech war exile from 1939 to 1945, and several magazines from the period of the First and Second World Wars.
4 . F o r e i g n S a m i z d a t M o n o g r a p h s a n d P e r i o d i c a l s
The collection has more than 360 library units of Slovak and over 600 units of Polish samizdat; 40 titles of Slovak and over 200 titles of Polish periodicals. Russian samizdat and periodicals from the former German Democratic Republic are marginally represented.
5 . F o r e i g n E x i l e M o n o g r a p h s a n d P e r i o d i c a l s
The collection has more than 630 library units of Slovak exile monographs and over 50 magazine titles; 400 volumes of monographs of the Russian and Ukrainian exile from 1920 to 1990, along with several periodical titles. Polish exile literature is represented by only several dozen publications and magazines.
6 . F o r e i g n L a n g u a g e M o n o g r a p h s a n d P e r i o d i c a l s
The collection of foreign-language books relating to Czechoslovakia and other communist countries or to the issue of human rights, including translations from Czech, has over 2800 volumes and more than 480 periodical titles.u
7 . D o c u m e n t a t i o n a n d A r c h i v e s
Documents concerning violations of human and civic rights in the former Czechoslovakia and the whole Soviet bloc form a large part of this collection. It is a collection of written documents which arose mostly from the activities of the independent initiatives of Charter 77, the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS), the East European Information Agency, etc., and also the works of individual authors and groups circulated by samizdat; feuilletons, political commentary, occasional texts, petitions, letters, etc. We took further steps toward processing these in 1998. Although we had to interrupt this activity for financial reasons, at the moment we have more than 900 records prepared. We also have unpublished works and manuscripts (over 270 units), documents and writings about the activity of exile organizations, publishers, and editors, including correspondence, samizdat posters, flyers, and archives of photographs and newspaper clippings.
8. Reference Library - General Subject and Secondary Literature
Here we have books, magazines, and other writings about samizdat and exile literature; catalogs; bibliographic collections; dictionaries; and blographic and dissertation work, in all more than 1780 items.
9 . A u d i o v i s u a l S e c t i o n
This arose in 1993 from the initiative of PhDr. Aleš Opekar. At present we own recordings of nonconformist music on 2240 cassettes, 690 CD-ROMs, and 160 gramophone records; audio
recordings of underground lectures and seminars (about 450); video documentaries and films of amateur production (about 700) on 445 video cassettes. We try to obtain recordings directly from the originators, therefore of the best possible technical quality.
T H E O P E R A T I O N A N D A C T I V I T I E S O F T H E L I B R A R Y
The headquarters and reading room of Libri Prohibiti are located at Senovážné Square No. 2 in Prague 1. We are open four days a week, Monday through Thursday afternoons, from 1:00 to 5:00. Publications are available to the reading public without charge, the majority of them for use in our reading room, which has 18 places. We loan out multiple copies upon the posting of a security deposit. We also provide standard services, including research, copying, and consultation.
In the period of time since the origin of our library, we have begun to fulfill the goal for which it was established: we are succeeding in completing the production of exile and samizdat material, including audio and visual. We own materials that are available nowhere else in the Czech Republic or even the world, and the greater part of this material is recorded in electronic form. In view of this our library has a fundamental significance for improving the information situation in this area. The library's collections are extensive and besides literature and literary science include history, political science, philosophy, theology, sociology, culture and politics, human rights, international relations, and more. Our library is therefore indispensable for getting to know our recent past, whose various aspects can be researched on our premises. Last year the library enjoyed constant attention from the media- articles in the daily and professional press, including foreign, and television and radio programs. We have visitors from many countries of the world, including students and researchers from several institutes. About ten library users come to us every day. We provide other consultations in writing, by telephone, and by electronic mail. We have also reproduced over 30,000 pages of copied material. For a library which has no permanent employees, this is a very extensive operation and one which requires a great personal effort. Therefore we welcome any and all help.
Our services are used by various institutions at home and abroad (for example, the Institute for Czech Literature and the Institute of Contemporary History, both at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; the Museum of Czech Literature; the Museum and Archive of Popular Music; the National Archive; the British Library in London, etc.) by researchers, high school and university students, Czech Radio, Czech Television, publishers, journalists, and others. Not only Czech but also foreign students search for material for their dissertation work here. We also make practical training possible for second- and third-year students of the Institute for Information Studies and Library Science at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University and for students of the Literary Academy, the Josef Škvorecký private college.
O U R R E S U L T S I N T H E P A S T
We have contributed to the publication of the following: Johanna Posset: "Česká samizdatová periodika, 1968-1989"; "Minulost a dějiny v českém a slovenském samizdatu, 1970-1989" (compiled by J. Vlk, V. Vaňková, and J. Novotný); Michal Přibáň: "České krajanské a exilové časopisy po roce 1945"; Aleš Zach: "Kniha a český exil"; František Knopp: "Česká literatura v exilu"; Lubomír Machala: "Průvodce po nových jménech české poezie a prózy"; "Texty The Plastic People of the Universe" (compiled by Jaroslav Riedel); Ivan Jirous: "Magorův zápisník" (edited by Michal Špirit); Martin Pilař: "Underground: Kapitoly o českém literárním undergroundu"; Gertraude Zand: "Totální realismus a trapná poezie: česká neoficiální literatura, 1948-1953" (also in German); Václav Havel: "Spisy/1-7/" (prepared by Jan Šulc); Barbara Day: "Sametoví filozofové" (The Velvet Philosophers); Pavel Kosatík: "Ferdinand Peroutka"; Petr Kabeš: "Kámen ze srdce"; Zdeněk Rotrekl: "Nezděné město"; Miroslav Kusý and Milan Šimečka: “Veľký brat a veľká sestra”; “Alternativní kultura: příběh české společnosti, 1945-1989” (compiled by Josef Alan); “Dílo Jaroslava Seiferta, sv. 11” (compiled by Marie Jirásková); Wernisch: “Blbecká poezie; and “Gegenansichten” (compiled by Heidrun Hamersky).
We have played a large part in the preparation of several documentary films. In 2003 Czech Television presented a fifteen-part documentary, “Samizdat”, created in co-operation with Libri Prohibiti. We also provide the basis for the radio program of Radim Vašinka, “Nežádoucí texty“. Our research has also been used for compiling the personal bibliographies of Egon Bondy, Václav Havel, Zbyněk Hejda, Bohumil Hrabal, Jan Lopatka, Sergej Machonin, Jiří Němec, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Vašíček, and many others.
The library's collections, including audiovisual, are being computer cataloged with the ISIS/MAKS library system, and we are currently completing them and working on their revision. We are also enlarging our database with records of desiderata and are creating bibliographic collections, in addition to processing article bibliographies of important samizdat periodicals, for example Kritický sborník, Host, Historické studie, Obsah, and others, of which we already have more than 7800 records. We have published some of these in Kritický sborník, where bibliographies of the following samizdat editions are gradually coming out: Jungiana, Nové cesty myšlení, Spisy Jana Patočky, Česká expedice, Krameriova expedice, Popelnice, Expedice (dark and light series), Alef, and Knihovna Střední Evropy.
O U R P U B L I C A T I O N S
Katalog knih českého exilu 1948-1994 (Catalog of Books of the Czech Exile, l948-1994)
In 1995 with the financial help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic we issued, through the publisher Primus, our “Katalog knih českého exilu 1948-1994“, as our first book publication. It is a combination of bibliographic books issued in the West by Czech publishers and of the catalogs of three Prague libraries (Libri Prohibiti, the National Library, and the library of the Institute for Czech Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic). Several years of preparation, including research in the National Library and the library of the Institute for Czech Literature, preceded its publication. The catalog, sold out today, was compiled by Jiří Gruntorád. It contains 3111 bibliographic records and has 394 pages and a name and subject index of persons. The price of the publication was 129,- Kč.
Sdělení Výboru na obranu nespravedlivě stíhaných a Zprávy Východoevropské informační agentury (Communications of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted and Reports of the East European Information Agency)
In 1996 we bibliographically processed the “Sdělení VONS” (the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted) and “Zprávy Východoevropské informační agentury”. These bibliographies are available to users in electronic form and also as a printed catalog (an internal printing by Libri Prohibiti and not for sale). This project was made possible with the help of the Foundation for the Development of a Civic Society (NROS).
Informace o Chartě 77: Článková bibliografie 1978-1990 (Information about Charter 77: An Article Bibliography, 1978-1990)
Within the framework of the book edition of the article bibliography of information about Charter 77, we electronically processed the basis for the printing of this publication in 1997, and in March 1998 we issued through Doplněk publisher “Informace o Chartě 77: Článková bibliografie 1978-1990”. The Foundation for the Development of a Civic Society from the PHARE Program of the Commission of the European Union supported the project. This publication contains 4129 bibliographic entries and has 628 pages and an author and name index, plus an index of institutions. Jiří Gruntorád compiled the bibliography with the help of Jana Lifková. The hard-cover copy costs 350,- Kč and the paperback 315,- Kč.
Exilová periodika: Katalog periodik českého a slovenského exilu a krajanských tisků vydávaných po roce 1945 (Exile Periodicals: Catalog of Czech and Slovak Exile Periodicals and Czech Printed Material Issued Abroad after 1945)
In the year 2000 with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foundation for the Development of a Civic Society through the PHARE program, and the city of Prague, we issued through Ježek publisher a catalog under the title: “Exilová periodika: Katalog periodik českého a slovenského exilu a krajanských tisků vydávaných po roce 1945”, which brings together a collection of 1093 periodicals. It is
something of a continuation of our “Katalog knih českého exilu 1948-1994“, and is likewise a combination of bibliography and catalog. Its entries include all known titles of periodicals from this time published in Czech. We also devote attention in it to periodicals in Slovak and other languages. A part of the book also consists of bibliographic entries of all titles in Libri Prohibiti, including a list of all issues, as well as lists of periodicals in the library of the Náprstek Museum in Prague, and in the archive of the Olomouc Center for Exile Studies. More than 600 titles represented in Libri Prohibiti are described in detail. The book has 503 pages, with a name, publisher, and title index. The first index alone contains almost 3500 names. The catalog was compiled by Lucie Formanová, Jiří Gruntorád, and Michal Přibáň. The hard-cover publication costs 360,- Kč.
O U R R E S U L T S I N 2 0 0 5
Since September 1999 we have had INTERNET pages in Czech and English, and since summer 2002 in German, at our address: http://libpro.cts.cuni.cz. This was made possible with the financial help of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the kind contribution of the Center for Theoretical Studies at Charles University and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. More than 3000 people visited our web site last year. Visitors can find here basic information about our library and association, our current annual report, annual reports from previous years, new articles about the
library, information on our publications and their reviews, lists of our sponsors, a summary of titles of exile periodicals complete in electronic form, lists of books that
we are looking for, and also some of our catalogs.
We completed the project of converting the data of our computer catalogs from the ISIS/MAKS system to the EasyInt system, which will make it possible for us to present and progressively update our catalogs on the internet. In 2001 we placed the catalogs of the collection of Czechoslovak postwar exile publications and of postwar publications of the Slovak exile here, and in 2003 the catalog of the Czechoslovak wartime exile. Last year we prepared smaller catalogs of czech ethnic publications and literature of the First Resistance.
Our Catalog of Czechoslovak Exile Book Publications Issued from 1948 to the Present contains 3950 entries, and it is possible to find material in it in several indexes: the Authors' Index (according to primary and secondary authors, illustrators, translators, editors, etc.); the Title Index (according to the titles of books); the Publishers' Index; and the Index of Persons (according to people written about). Using the same criteria, it is possible to work with the catalog of Slovak exile publications, which so far contains 530 records, and with the catalog of publications of the Czechoslovak wartime exile, which contains 520 records. The catalog of books of the First Resistance (58 records) and of czech ethnic publications (170 entries) has been
prepared. The catalogs are progressively updated, and we want to present still others, especially catalogs of periodicals and of Czechoslovak samizdat.
In 2001 and 2002 within the framework of a grant from EIDHR of the European Community we processed the archive fund The Czechoslovak Students’ Movement in the 1960’s (the collection of Ivan Dejmal), which contains 545 records in eight cartons, and made it available on our internet pages. We also continued work on the archive of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted, which we began in the year 2002. The inventory of this archive was completed last year, and now we are preparing its internet presentation. We have 62 cartons stored.
Last year we increased our collection by about 1000 books and about 80 periodical titles, mostly through gifts and purchases. These parts of our collection expanded the most significantly:
Czech samizdat monographs by 500 units
Exile monographs by 100 units
the reference library by 280 units
the audiovisual collection by 140 audio cassettes, 30 video cassettes, and 190 CD-ROMs
During 1999 we transferred three complete exile periodicals to electronic form: first, the independent review Skutečnost, issued from 1949 to 1953, with 1096 digitalized pages of text; the somewhat more extensive independent cultural review Sklizeň, issued from 1953 to 1979, with 2040 pages; and the monthly for politics and culture Zápisník, issued between 1958 and 1962, and having 491 pages. This completes our transfer of exile periodicals to electronic form. Together with several samizdat publications we have processed over 4000 pages. This is, of course, only a small fraction of all the materials which must be transferred to electronic form in the near future, not only to preserve them as our cultural heritage, but also to use them more effectively. Due to insufficient finances, we were able to continue work on this project in 2003 only to a very limited extent, digitalizing only Czech periodicals being published in Ecuador. We did not continue with this project at all in 2004.
G O A L S O F T H E L I B R A R Y F O R 2 0 0 6
Our main goal is to accumulate the most complete and highest quality collection of books, periodicals, and other materials which were created by the Czech and Slovak exile, and of all the accessible productions of our domestic opposition, our samizdat. We want to completely catalog these collections by computer and to make the results accessible for the purpose of further research, both in our computer network and in the form of book and periodical publications, also by issuing them on CD-ROM and on the internet.
This year it is necessary to:
continue with our acquisitions
continue the computer cataloging of our collections and new acquisitions, especially of Czechoslovak samizdat gradually present more and more of our processed data on the internet
continue building and cataloging the audiovisual collection
continue the project of preserving some endangered exile periodicals by transferring them to electronic media (CD-ROM) with the help of a scanner
prepare the internet presentation of the catalog of the archive of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted
complete the project of editing the collection of Kritický Sborník (editor Karel Palek)
This year we are presenting one project to the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic - Collecting the Data in the library of Libri Prohibiti, Processing it, and Making it Accessible – and another project to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Cataloging and Inventorying of Personal Exile Collections. In view of the still limited resources of the state budget, we assume that grants will cover only the lesser part of our expenses and that we will need to gain further sponsors. Gifts are tax-deductible in the Czech Republic.
R E Q U E S T
Although the library already contains the most extensive collection of the exile and samizdat press from the period mentioned, still there remain noticeable gaps in our collection which are necessary to fill. Therefore, we ask for the help of friends at home and around the world. Whoever still has old samizdat or exile books, newspapers, periodicals, phonograph records, recordings, films, brochures, flyers, newsletters, etc., please let us hear from you! It's really important!
No less important, of course, is financial support. Last year we were not able to maintain a balanced budget, and our expenses moderately exceeded our income. This year we will face a deficit, too. Therefore, we ask you to please give us your support, as far as possible financially as well. Any and all help is most welcome!
A W O R D O F T H A N K S
Our thanks go to the following people and organizations:
The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic - literary grant (300,000,- Kč) Luděk Volf (222,222,- Kč)
Česká spořitelna, a.s. (200,000,- Kč in 2004 and for 2005)
Economia a.s. (100,000,- Kč) Lafarge Cement a.s. (30,000,- Kč) FBB spol. s r.o. (20,000,- Kč) Aleš Bartusek (20,000,- Kč) Jiří Bednář (10,000,- Kč) Hana Čejková (10,000,- Kč) Karel Kovanda (10,000,- Kč) Radmila Locherová (10,000,- Kč) Milan and Milena Paulovi (10,000,- Kč) Vladimír Pistorius (10,000,- Kč)
Spolek Domov Basilej (9,541,- Kč)
Further, an anonymous Czech-American (5,892,- Kč), Jiří Fragner (5,000,- Kč), Vlastimil Ježek (5,000,- Kč), and Marta Schmid (4,000,- Kč), Oldřich Černý (4,000,- Kč), all in the amount of 4,000,- Kč or more.
Still further members of our society deserve thanks for their gifts, which totaled 39,192,- Kč. We received contributions, unfortunately, from only 20 of our 180 members, of which only 9 were more than 1,000,- Kč. We also received gifts of over 2,000,- Kč. from the previously mentioned Milan and Milena Paul (10,000- Kč), Radmila Locherová (10,000,- Kč), Vlastimil Ježek (5,000,- Kč), Oldřich Černý (4,000,- Kč), Mr. And Mrs. Reich (2,000,- Kč), and François Brélaz (2,000,- Kč). We also thank the many individuals who gave us their generous help. I mention Lois Russell especially, who has, among other things, translated our annual reports into English for sixteen years now; Johanna Posset, who takes care of our German internet page; Běla Kolářová, for her kind consent to let us use the collage of Jiří Kolář; and Viktor Karlík, who prepared the graphics and typesetting.
No fewer thanks go to our donors who constantly help us to expand our collections. Also, to magazine and newspaper publishers who send us their publications without charge. Thanks to them Libri Prohibiti is what it is today.
We also thank all our friends, supporters, colleagues, and sponsors who have helped us since our beginning to maintain and expand our library. We wish all of you well, good luck, and success, and we hope to receive your support this year, too. We look forward to your visiting us.
