Prague Castle

After our lecture we were free to roam on our own, and Sarah, Jamie, and I climbed the many stairs up the hill to Prague Castle (Pražský hrad).


These rather frightening statues guard the entrance.


The palace grounds contain several courtyards, a cathedral, and many buildings.


While we were walking near the cathedral, a police officer suddenly pushed us back, clearing a path for "the president's car" (we don't know if the actual president was inside, but we like to think so).

Walking down from the castle we passed through the St. Wenceslas vineyards.


We also walked through the Jewish Quarter, which is quite near our hotel.

Nostic Palace aristocratic library

Monday afternoon we attended a lecture at the aristocratic library at Nostic (pronounced NAHsticks) Palace, which has been turned into a Ministry of Culture building, with the library intact.


This lecture was a follow-up to last week's lesson on baroque bourgeois libraries. The Nostic family founded this library in 1670, in the manner of aristocrats whose prestige depended on constantly proving their worth. One way to achieve this was by fighting bravely in wars, and another was education in the arts and sciences, poetry and theology, architecture and law.

The aristocrats opened their libraries to scholars of the time. During this time, universities lacked the money to maintain current collections, so these aristocratic libraries were a great resource for students.


The libraries were developed based upon the principles from the "Bibliotheca Universalis" (the original is shown here by Dr. Richard Sipek), by Gesner in 1545, which is like an index of all worthwhile books to that point. Also used was Gabriel Naudé's "Advice on Constructing a Library" which expressed the importance of accessibility to the library by the public, the inclusion of titles in their original language along with local translation, and the inclusion of all viewpoints.


Otto Nostic, who developed most of the library, was committed to spreading the Catholic faith; his library still contained many "heretical," or protestant texts. Inside each of these, he hand wrote a message claiming to condemn and reject any content that was against the Catholic church.


Despite the blurriness of this picture, you can make out hinges on the right and a handle on the left - this "secret door" led to the living quarters of the librarian.

Hostivař - National Library depository and conservation

Monday morning we took a bus ride to Hostivař, where the National Library's central depository is located.


This facility contains 4.5 million items. Twice per day, requested items are sent to and from the Klementinum (the National Library downtown).


Great care is taken to preserve all the books; the temperature is kept between 17 and 19 degrees Centigrade, and humidity at 45 to 47%.


Molds are cultured and analyzed in order to remove them from infected books. There was a big flood in 2002 which damaged more than 800,000 books and caused a big mold problem.



They use this unique machine to dry out the books, and often perform this task for other libraries and businesses that have wet, damaged items. It takes up to two weeks to dry a book, and involves a lot of manual intervention.


A large machine cuts out perfectly-sized boxes to store irreparable books. For my scrapbooking friends, this machine is like a giant Cricut!


They also have a conservation lab where damaged books and manuscripts are repaired. Here, one of the conservationists demonstrates leaf casting, a process that fills in holes or other damage with new pulp that is mixed to match the original document.


After the pages dry she will cut them and sew them back intol their book, re-creating the binding with the original parchment cover.

Return to the rainbow sherbet cave

Today we ate lunch at the rainbow sherbet cave restaurant in Lesser Square again. This time we were seated in a tangerine-colored cave room.

Beer, wine, and food tasting

On Sunday evening several of us gathered in the hotel lobby for a tasting party. We all brought some food and drink to share.


I, of course, brought chocolate.


The drinks table.


The food table.

More Czech signs

The number of Czech/check puns is nearly unlimited.


If your house is on fire, press this button.



Walking like an Egyptian is allowed.

The following pictures are all from the Municipal Library:


Your phone may spit fire.


On the right: do not attach your briefcase to your jacket.


No umbrella drinks allowed.


Cloning is allowed.

Out and about in Prague

Last night (Saturday) we had dinner at the Siam Orchid Thai Restaurant.


Mom, you have been asking about the building that I see from my room. Here it is from another angle, taken on the walk back from dinner last night. It looks to be primarily a bank and a hostel.


Here we have a Prague tram, with a bonus example of leisure fashion.


Today I did some walking around on my own. I went to St. Wenceslas Square (Václavské Náměstí), where I bought some books, then sat at the base of the statue to get some sun and read Kafka. The building is the National Museum.



Walking to New Town Hall I came across this lovely building, which appears to belong to Charles University.


New Town Hall, which, according to my map, looks out over the largest square in Europe.

Municipal Library of Prague, part two: the future of public libraries

"There are places where we MUST be . . . Then there are places where we WANT to be." -- Dr. Tomáš Řehák, Director of the Municipal Library of Prague.



People don't need libraries anymore. Information can be found easily, quickly, and cheaply online. Public libraries, if they are to avoid extinction, need to become places where people want to be. Dr. Řehák spent some time talking about his vision for public libraries: how we can make our libraries a place that people want to come to, with examples of libraries around the world who are implementing some of these practices. I think his ideas are very intriguing and worth thinking about for our own public libraries, and I want to paraphrase them here.

1. Make the library a beautiful and appealing place. While this can be expensive, in some cases just looking at the library with fresh eyes can help. For example, signs posted everywhere telling patrons what NOT to do can be a turn-off.

2. Make the library a center of activities. Even non-book-related events can draw in a new crowd and be an opportunity to show off the library and its services. Some examples:

• Kids' programs - bring in the whole family.
• Broadcasting center - produce and broadcast radio and/or TV programs from the library (I am proud to say that Northside is doing this!).
• Parties - some libraries have bookshelves on wheels, which can be easily moved aside to create a dance floor.
• The Helsinki Public Library loans musical instruments and has a music studio (another innovative Northside feature). In addition to helping artists record their music, the library will create CDs and distribute them, bringing the library to the center of the creative industry.
• Games - the Rotterdam Public Library features a large floor chessboard. People line up to play and watch.

3. Make the library user-friendly.

• Allow food and drink. After all, we allow patrons to take these books home, where they are certainly using them near all sorts of substances. Why the fear of this in the library itself?
• Provide comfortable and relaxing seating, so people want to stay and hang out.
• Provide kid-sized tables and chairs, including in the computer areas.
• Allow cell phone use; perhaps create a comfortable, closed-off area where users can talk without disturbing others.

4. Employ friendly, accessible librarians. Dr. Řehák cites Sherpa Tenzing Norgay as the prototype of the perfect librarian.

5. Ask people what they need. Marketing is not about shaping people to fit our use, but rather about shaping our use to fit the people.

Municipal Library of Prague, part one: overview

There is so much to say about our afternoon at the Municipal Library that I am splitting it into two posts.


We began with a very interesting lecture by the director of the library, Dr. Tomáš Řehák. The municipal library is the public library, and in Prague, the library was founded in 1891 with the central library being built in 1928 (interestingly, the central library building is one of only three library buildings in Prague that were built to actually be a library - the others are the National Library and the National Technical Library). The Prague Municipal Library has 42 branches and three mobile libraries, and serves a population of 1.2 million people.

There are 500 employees at the library, and 2,250,000 items in the collection. For the past three years, the number of active card holders has increased by 10,000 each year, and there are currently 170,000 active card holders with 2,150,000 annual visits. The library has a (relatively small) budget of 12 million dollars. It costs about three dollars to obtain a library card.



This sculpture contains 8,000 books and is in the library entrance.

This is their book cart!


Part of the children's area, where they do story times and workshops (this is for you, Miss Mary!). They also have a Wii in this area which children (and their families) can use for a half hour at a time.