The cooperative system for the management and long-term preservation of the modern Bohemical book collections

Abstract

Valid Czech Legislation prescribes all the Czech libraries to hold their book collections permanently. However, is it possible to proclaim that this statute is the true guarantee of the book heritage preservation for the future? In the near past the answer was simple – NO! There was no precise evidence about the documents, which are contained in the preservation collections of the Czech Libraries, because of various approaches to these collections. There was very limited access for the mass conservation processes e.g. deacidification, book binding or digital reformatting. There were no systematic surveys of the physical book conditions. National Library of the Czech Republic collections management experts identified that the system for building, enrichment and management of the modern preservation collections is required. A few years ago the unique cooperative system of the management and long-term preservation of the modern book collections among the biggest Czech libraries has been launched.