The Libraries in Slovakia

The Libraries in Slovakia

Dušan Katuščák[1][2]

Slovakia and libraries

Slovakia is a small country in Central Europe with 5.3 million inhabitants. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. Librarianship in Slovakia has developed on legislative basis since the beginning of the 20th century. After the formation of the CzechoslovakRepublic in 1918 the first Library Act was adopted in 1919, followed by the next one in 1959.

At present (2012), the Library Network of the Slovak Republic comprises the National Library, 12 scientific libraries, 33 academic libraries, 2600 regional, municipal and local community public libraries, 300 special libraries, and 6000 school libraries.

The Library Network of the SlovakRepublic is open. On one hand it is based on national professional continuity and on the other hand, it makes use of external stimuli that have influenced and still influence the development of the Library Network on the national level. These are in particular the initiatives, programs and projects of the European Union, the Council of Europe and projects run by various international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

The National Bibliography and national bibliographic services and systems

In Slovakia, systematic institutionalised work in the field of current Slovak bibliography started to develop after the Second World War in the Bibliographic Institute in the Library of the Slovak University (the present-day University Library in Bratislava), which processed the periodical called the Slovak Book as a part of the Bibliographic Catalogue of the Czechoslovak Republic until 1954, and in the association-based Slovak National Library in Martin.

Back in 1941, the Slovak Bibliographic Society was established in Martin with an one of its goals to publish a Slovak bibliographic journal. The first issue of the Slovak Bibliographyjournal with a list of currently published „Slovak printed production and the domestic and foreign printed production in other languages that concerns Slovakia and Slovaks" was published from 1st January 1944. In this issue, A. A. Baníkoutlined a basic plan and a structure of the current national bibliography, and the attributes of slovacity.

Since 1954, the current Slovak national bibliography has been processed by the National Bibliographic Agency (presently the National Bibliographic Institute) in the Slovak National Library in Martin. From 1969 the bibliography was published as the Slovak National Bibliography, until 1993 it was a part of the joint Czech and Slovak bibliographic catalogue.

The seminar on current national bibliography held inĽubochňaon 30th-31stOctober 1969 was a milestone in the development of the current Slovak national bibliography. In this seminarPeter Libapresented a concept of a modern current Slovak national bibliography (Liba, 1971, s. 5-43)[3][4].

Since 1976, the current Slovak national bibliography has been automated (Automated Information System of the Slovak National Bibliography - AIS SNB). The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is used for classification in the system of the current Slovak national bibliography. In the beginning (between 1976 and 1991) a custom-made programme MIPSwas used, then (1990-1995) the CDS/ISISsystem was introduced. In the period from 1995 to 2003 the Aleph library system was used, and from 1994 until 2003 the UNIMARC format was used along with national cataloguing rules partially compatible with ISBD recommendations.

From 2004 the Slovak National Library uses the VTLS Virtualibrary system, which was procured in 2003 as a common library and information system for Slovak libraries according to the Slovak Government's Resolution no. 801 from 2002. Both formats MARC 21 andAACR2 are used. By introducing automated processing, printing of paper catalogue cards was discontinued gradually.

Legal deposit

Michal Chrástekpublished an appeal in the 1864 Chronicle of Maticaslovenská that all Slovak printed books should be sent in one copy to Maticaslovenská, which was a general request to collect voluntary legal deposit. Based on this appeal , the national Slovak and Slovakia-related collection in the Library of Maticaslovenská expanded and thecopiesprovidedwere considered as gifts for the National Library.

The right to receive systematically legal deposits was won on 13th December 1939by the association-based Slovak National Library, which operated between 1941 and 1953. Until foundation of the Slovak National Library on 1st May 1941 it was the Library of the Maticaslovenská which received legal deposit. On12thMarch 1947the Slovak National Library obtained the right to receive a free state-wide mandatory legal deposit and started to act more intensively in the field of book culture and librarianship in Slovakia. At present the Act no. 535/2003 on legal deposit is in force in the Slovak Republic.

Electronic documents as such were first mentioned in the Legal Deposit Act no. 212/1997 and this was more elaborated on in the Decree of the Ministry of Culture no. 20/1998 Col. on Legal Deposit of a serial publication and non-serial publication in an electronic form. The present day's legislation in force deals with the issues of electronic forms in the above mentioned articles of the updated Act no. 212/1997. There is no other indication or definition of the electronic forms elsewhere in the Act. According to modern understanding of this group of documents, in our Legal Deposit Act we cannot actually talk about electronic publications in the same manner as they are normally understood in other countries.

The Slovak National Library after 2000

In 2000 a new Library Act was adopted in Slovakia which also defines the Library Network of the Slovak Republic and the position of the Slovak National Library in Martin.

The Act stipulates:

„(1) The Slovak National Library is a legal entity established by the Ministry of Culture of the SlovakRepublic.

(2) The Slovak National Library has its domicile in Martin.

(3) The Slovak National Library:

a) fulfils tasks as the conservation library and deposition library of the SlovakRepublic

b) preferentially collects indigenous and foreign Slovakia-related documents, submits them to expert processing, maintains and protects them, and provides for their accessibility

c) fulfils tasks as the national bibliographic agency by providing for co-ordination of the national bibliographic system, for national bibliographic registration of Slovakia-related documents, for the expert processing of Slovak national bibliography and for access thereto

d) represents the workplace responsible for activities pertaining to literary archives, literary museums and biographical documentation as well as for research, protection and support of Slovak national bibliography

e) fulfils tasks within the library system as a methodological, advisory, co-ordinating, educating and statistical workplace

f) fulfils the functions of the National Agency for the international standard numbering of documents and for the international identification of documents

g) fulfils tasks in the system of libraries as a scientific-technological and standardising workplace

h) fulfils tasks as the National Centre for interlibrary lending services, and tasks within international interlibrary lending services

i) fulfils tasks in the field of administration and protection of historical library documents and historical library collections

j) gives statements in respect to proposals for proclamation of library documents and library collections historical library documents and historical library collections and of the cancellation of such proclamations, and determines the value of such documents and collections

k) maintains the Central Register of historical library documents and historical library collections (hereinafter referred to as the “Central Register”) as well as records of documents and the sets of library documents deleted from the Central Register

l) gives statements in respect to applications for permanent export of documents or sets of documents which, considering their extraordinary value, may be proposed to be proclaimed historical library documents or historical library collections

m) fulfils tasks as the national workplace for the restoration, conservation, protective copying and digitisation of library documents

n) provides for the administration of the comprehensive catalogue of monographs and for the co-ordinated generation of comprehensive library catalogues.“

The Slovak National Library is a state budgetary organisation. The main seat of the Library is in Martin in a building that was constructed for the library in the period from 1963 to 1975. This building houses library collections and literary archives' collections. Professional and administrative organisational units are located there as well. The Library also comprises two literary museums, one located in Martin and another one in Brodzany. The Library's collections contain 4.7 million documents, the archives contain 1.5 million units and the museums have several ten thousands museum objects.

The Slovak National Library has got it own symbols.It manages several buildings.[4]

Innovation in the Slovakia's Library Network

After the adoption of the Library Act in 2000 the Government of the Slovak Republic approved several materials that have had a significant impact on the development of Slovak librarianship. In 2001 the Government adopted the Strategy for Development of the Slovak Librarianship until 2006.

The Strategy contains tasks for Ministries and recommendations local government and authorities. These tasks concern construction and modernization of buildings, the project of implementing ICT in libraries, connection of libraries to the Internet, establishment of the research program for saving, stabilization and conservation of traditional carriers of information in the Slovak Republic and the obligation to declare library services as a part of the public information services. There were some further provisions regarding acquisition of information resources etc.

In 2006 the Slovak National Library elaborated for the Government a basic concept of theStrategy for Development of Slovak Librarianship for 2007-2013.

After public discussion the first draft of the Strategy originated at the Slovak Library Association Conference in June 2006. At the current stage the Strategy is focused on the following goals:

1. Libraries for the knowledge-based society
2. Implementation of ICT in libraries
3. Library and information services for disabled users
4. Program for saving, stabilization and conservation of traditional information carriers in the SlovakRepublic.
5. Education of library staff and human resources development
6. Construction and reconstruction of library buildings
7. Information instruction and education of children and youth.

The Slovak National Libraryactively participated in the preparation of the Information Society Operational Programme under the Strategic Reference Framework which is the basis for development in Slovakia in the years 2007-2013 and which determines the main areas of using the financial support from the EU Structural Funds.

The Information Society Operational Programme approved by the Slovak Government in December 2006is significant for implementation of ICT and making use of content.[5][6] What are the priorities of the Operational Programme?

1. Implementation of ICT in public administration and electronic services (695 166783 €)
2. Development of heritage institutions and their infrastructure (163 568655 €)
3. Broadband Internet (260 228383 €)
4. Technical assistance (36 919782 €)

Total budget for the Information Society Operational Programme is app. 1.17 billion euro. Libraries, museums, galleries and archives are among the priorities, which is ssuccess for the cultural heritage sector.

So far, culture and education have not been included among the society’s priorities. The allocated funds will enable starting up deployment of technology, production and presentation of related content.

In the area of culture, the Programme Declaration corresponds with the priorities of the Information Society Operational Programme and regional development policies in Slovakia.

The competences of mediator will pertain to the Ministry of Culture and the Board for Implementing ICT in Culture as the Minister of Culture's advisory body.

Cooperation and Innovation projects

If a national library as a innovation leader and libraries wants to keep pace with time in provision of cultural, information and educational services, it cannot wait for a global reform of culture, science and education from the content point of view. We seek to take the focus from collections to services and make the national library and library network into a more open democratic institution so that the results of its work justify its existence and usefulness for a modern society.

Realisation of these ambitions is not an easy task at all. Nevertheless, in our opinion we succeeded in making the Slovak National Library stand on its own feet after the necessary separation from Maticaslovenská and owing to an extraordinary effort, but also in starting a very solid and auspicious projects and directions of development for the nearest as well as remote future. These are namely the projects for which we obtained extensive extra-budgetary funding that is quite unusual in Slovak circumstances. If we only relied on state funding of the national library, which was one of the lowest in the EU (for instance, there were no investments planned in the 2006 and 2007 budgets), the national library would shortly become a dead and unnecessary institution. We have to win the resources which other institutions receive without any special efforts only by a great professional and human endeavour.

Common Library and Information System

One of the projects that were formed with regard to the WSIS ideas is the Project of the 3rd Generation Library and Information system (KIS3G). At present this project is in progress. It is based on the idea of making use of common software shared at national level. This common software is being used by more than 52 libraries and collections and we have attained better availability of technology for libraries and improvement library services for citizens. The output of this project is the Slovak Library portal available at total project costs are approximately 1 million €.

In the common library software, union databases can be accessed viapartner institutions and document types.

KIS3Gprojectwas established in2002. In 2011,the project grouped the 52 most significant memberlibrariesandthe collectionsof the country. These arelibrariesthathas voluntarilydecided touse an integratedlibraryinformation systemVIRTUA. KIS3Gprojectisbuilton the principles ofthe availability ofone instance ofa commonsoftwarefor Slovak libraries, theprinciple ofstandardization, the useof the Internetandprofessionalcollaboration of the libraries.

Project outputsare:

1. Slovak Library– web portalto catalogs and collections of Slovak libraries, available

through

1. MemoriaSlovaca–web portalforcultural heritage ofSlovakia, available through portalforaccessingdigital content).

The aim of thisprojectiscreatestandardandconsistentenvironment, and make availablecultural and scientific heritagethroughshared databases. It is aquality, well-establishedandby the publicwellacceptedservice of the library association. Centralizeddeploymentof thecommonsoftwareVirtuaintheKIS3Gprojectrepresentsabout80%cost savingscompared tolocal systems.

The implementationof international standardsandthecommonsoftwareVirtua,butmainlythanks tocooperationof dozens ofSlovak libraries, we havecurrentlyavailable the largestbibliographicdatabase. It containsdescriptionsof titlesandcopiesof analogueobjectsto bedigitizedandpreserved intheproject ”Digitallibrary”. This catalogserves as aregistryof digital objects. Documentsthat are physically locatedinthe collections ofthe SNL andproject partnersarethe most important partof the writtenheritage of Slovakia.

In December 2011, theVirtuadatabasecontained4,000,000bibliographic records. There are, however, theduplicityandmultiplicityarisingfrom theconversions ofdatabasesof variousparticipantsin the projectKIS3Gsystems whichwe are trying toremove.

According to the statistics, in 2011 there were 1,743,630library circulations that are incorporated in the KIS3G.

StatisticalserviceTOP 100presents an overview ofthemost commoncirculations forlibraries. We prepare, from the KIS3G system statistics on accounting of payments for the library circulations to authors for the agency LITA (society of authors), at

Public Internet in Slovak Libraries

This project is in accord with the Strategy for Building Information Society approved by the Government’s Resolution no. 43/2004. It meets especially the following objectives: coordinated, well-informed and thus also effective spending of public finances in the process of building the information society, knowledge potential and competitiveness of the population. It also follows the strategic goals in the area of ICT infrastructure, especially the goal of creating information and communication infrastructure corresponding to the level of European Union states available for all citizens and business entities. For reaching this goal it is among others necessary to establish public accessible internet access points in public and scientific libraries that will enable free and cheap access to information for all demographic groups of citizens. The project also carries out the action plans for the Strategy of Building Information Society, where implementation of ICT in libraries is generally included as the central task of the cultural sector.

The practical measures to be taken under this project is to equip 110 public professionally staffed libraries with computing technology and create 760 new public Internet access points. The project’s costs are app. 1 million €. Installation of the thin clients and servers in the libraries took place in July 2007. The Slovak National Library provides for the project management and implementation.

Information for Innovation

The project was initiated by the Slovak National Library and it involves 11 scientific and academic libraries[7]. The objective is to enhance the active role played by scientific and academic libraries in knowledge society, to accomplish and make operational an open national information infrastructure, which uses university and research libraries as its main pillars and to orient their information activity to support of industries and services as well as to support small and medium-sized enterprises. The project was approved for funding from EU structural funds also due to support by the Ministry of Economy of the SlovakRepublic. The approved funding is in amount of approximately 6 million €.

Slovak Digital Library

This project was initiated by the National Library[8]and its proposal was submitted to the Office of the Government of the SlovakRepublic with the aim of receiving resources from the so-called Norwegian funds. The project was evaluated as the best prepared and submitted for review in Brussels. The Slovak National Library acquired military depots in Vrútky, comprising 17 structures and 65 thousand square metres.The intention of the National Library is to establish its regular detached worksite with a working title Cultural and technological park with technological operations and workplaces necessary for fulfilment of the SNK’s main tasks, which cannot be any more built and developed in the main building in Martin. At the same time, the park will be a site of presentation of technologies and innovations in the relevant areas. This involves in particular the following technological and related workplaces:

• Digitisation of cultural heritage materials
• Microfilming of cultural heritage materials
• Repositories of digital materials and microfilms
• Repository of paper documents
• Conservation andrestoration of documents
• Mass de-acidification of paper
• Workrooms for restoration of documents
• Workrooms for preparing exhibitions of the SlovakNationalLiteraryMuseum
• Further education, workshops, trainings and presentations
• Multi-purpose working and presentation areas

Due to limited funding, the whole project will be carried out in stages. The total costs of repairs, reconstructions and technologies are estimated at about 10million EUR. among possible sources of funding are the EU structural funds, Norwegian and EEA Financial Mechanisms. The cost of the first stage 2007-2008is 1.42 million EUR. This financial support was approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission on 21st June 2007. In experimental period (2010-2011) national library and another libraries digitized about 2,5 million pages.