ORIGIN OF THE LIBRARY

Transcription

1 ORIGIN OF THE LIBRARY 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. Because we are convinced that one of the pillars of democracy is the citizen's right of access to information without any kind of obstacles, we are trying to contribute to the fulfillment of this right. In order for us to provide this service to all people interested, 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.

2 THE SOCIETY OF LIBRI PROHIBITI 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. The amount of membership contributions is not set, and all contributions are voluntary. Among the founding members of the society were 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; the former director of the Masaryk Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jaroslav Opat; the 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 today has 182 members. In addition to the named founders they include the writers 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 elected. Now a new committee, elected in 2005, represents our civic association. Its chairman is Ivan M. Havel with Oldřich Černý (Geneva) as vice-chairman, and other members Zdeňka Gruntorádová and Jiří Gruntorád, who is also the statutory representative, and a new member, Michal Holeček, one of the founding members. The Society of Libri Prohibiti invites all interested people who can and want to help our library in any way, to become members.

3 THE CURRENT STATE OF THE LIBRARY'S COLLECTIONS The library consists of collections of samizdat and exile literature, of an archive of documents, and an audiovisual section - in all more than 27,200 library units and over 2200 periodical titles. We expand the collections through purchases, exchange, permanent loans, and gifts from friends, both at home and abroad. We make copies, including more and more in electronic form, 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. Czech Samizdat Monographs and Periodicals The fund has more than 13,900 units from the 1950's to the 1980'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 376 periodical titles (e.g., Informace o Chartě 77, Informace o církvi, Revolver Revue, Vokno, Historické studie, Kritický sborník, Střední Evropa, etc.), and all the significant periodicals are complete. 2. Czech Exile Monographs and Periodicals This collection includes over 7050 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 850 titles of Czechoslovak 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.

4 3. Monographs and Periodicals of the First and Second War Resistance The collection contains 85 units of legionnaires' literature from the First World War, 820 monographs of the Czech war exile from 1939 to 1945, and several magazines from the period of the First and Second World Wars. 4. Foreign Samizdat Monographs and Periodicals The collection has more than 380 library units of Slovak and over 650 units of Polish samizdat; 43 titles of Slovak and over 230 titles of Polish periodicals. Russian samizdat and periodicals from the former German Democratic Republic are marginally represented. 5. Foreign Exile Monographs and Periodicals The collection has more than 690 library units of Slovak exile monographs and over 50 magazine titles; 420 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. Foreign-Language Monographs and Periodicals 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 3250 volumes and more than 500 periodical titles. 7. Monographs and Periodicals of Czechs Abroad The collection contains 430 library units and several dozen periodical titles published by Czechs living mainly in Austria, the U.S.A., and the former Yugoslavia. 8. Documentation and Archives Documents concerning violations of human and civic rights in the former Czechoslovakia and the entire Soviet bloc form a large part of this collection. It is a collection of written documents which arose mostly from the activities of independent initiatives - 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. The collection is partially processed for the time being over 1500 records are prepared. A part of this collection also

5 consists of unpublished works and manuscripts (over 270 units), documents and writings about the activities of exile organizations, publishers, and editors, including correspondence, samizdat posters, flyers, and archives of photographs and newspaper clippings. 9. 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 biographic and dissertation work, in all more than 2400 items. 10. Audiovisual Section This arose in 1993 from the initiative of PhDr. Aleš Opekar. At present we own recordings of nonconformist music on 2480 cassettes, 1060 CD-ROMs, and 195 gramophone records; audio recordings of underground lectures and seminars (about 450); video documentaries and films of amateur production (over 760) on 490 video cassettes and 50 DVDs. We try to obtain recordings directly from the originators, therefore of the best possible technical quality. THE OPERATION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE LIBRARY 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, except for holidays and vacations. Publications are available to the reading public without charge, the majority of them for use in our reading room, which has 18 places. We lend 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. In view of the uniqueness of some of the materials which we managed to acquire (and in some cases even rescue from destruction), and which are available nowhere else in the Czech Republic or even the world (the greater part of them recorded in electronic form), our library has a fundamental significance for improving the information situation in many areas. Besides literature and literary science, the library s collections include history,

6 political science, philosophy, theology, sociology, culture and politics, the field of human rights, international relations, and still more. Therefore, our library has been indispensable for a long time 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 many professional institutes. About ten library users come to us every day. We provide many consultations in writing, by telephone, and by electronic mail. Just last year we 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, Forschungsstelle Osteuropa an der Universitat Bremen, 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 available to second - and third - year students of the Institute for Information Studies and Library Science at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University and to students of the Literary Academy, the Josef Škvorecký private college. OUR RESULTS IN THE PAST We have contributed to the publication of the following: Johanna Posset: Česká samizdatová periodika, ; Minulost a dějiny v českém a slovenském samizdatu, (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

7 Zand: Totální realismus a trapná poezie: česká neoficiální literatura, (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: Vel ký brat a vel ká sestra ; Alternativní kultura: příběh české společnosti, (compiled by Josef Alan); Dílo Jaroslava Seiferta, sv. 11 (compiled by Marie Jirásková); Ivan Wernisch: Blbecká poezie ; Gegenansichten (compiled by Heidrun Hamersky); Jarmila Cysařová: Muž, který tu chybí ; Ivan M. Jirous: "Labutí písně ; Oskar Mainx: Poesie jako mýtus, svědectví a hra ; Marie Rút Křížková: Svědectví, které nemohlo být vysloveno ; Václav Havel František Janouch: Korespondence We have also played a large part in the preparation of several documentary films: a fifteen-part documentary, Samizdat ; the documentary serial Příběhy železné opony (Stories from the Iron Curtain) ; and the documentary film by Jan Novák Občan Václav Havel jede na dovolenou (Citizen Václav Havel Goes on Vacation); a ten-part documentary serial Ženy Charty 77 (The Women of Charter 77); documentaries from the cycle Neznámí hrdinové (Unknown Heroes) about Josef Zvěřina and Pavel Zajíček; and even one of the parts of the entertaining educational magazine Futuroskop Jak kopírka mění svět (How the Copier is Changing the World). For several years we have also provided the basis for the radio program of Radim Vašinka, Nežádoucí texty (Undesirable Texts). 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, Petr Rezek, Zdeněk Vašíček, and many others. We continue to work together with the creators of the web pages Totalita.cz, Scriptum.cz, Charta.cz, and VONS.cz, and with the editors of the Revue pro studium totalitních režimů Paměť a dějiny (The Review for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes Memory and History ). In the year 2000 we participated in the exhibition Samizdat in Berlin by lending some of our materials. In 2001 we took part in the same way in the exhibitions Doma v cizině Češi ve Vídni (At Home Abroad The Czechs in Vienna) and Jaroslav Seifert, both of which were held in Prague. Our exhibits were again displayed at the exhibitions Samizdat in Budapest, Deutschland Tschechien in Leipzig, and Ladislav Sutnar in Prague.

8 We lent hundreds of exhibits for the exhibition Český a slovenský exil 20. století (The Czech and Slovak Exiles in the 20th Century) in Brno. In 2004, the same for the Prague exhibition Hrabal a Libeň (Hrabal and Libeň) and another at the Polabské Museum in Poděbrady, Autoři samizdatu (Authors of the Samizdat). In 2005 at the Book Museum in Žd ár nad Sázavou, thanks to our loan of samizdat and exile literature, the exposition of the history of books in the 20th century was expanded. Our materials could also be seen at the exhibitions Zlaté časy médií (The Golden Age of Media) at the National Museum in Prague, Literatura a totalita (Literature and Totality) at the Museum of the Highlands in Havlíčkův Brod, and 140 of our exhibits at the Polish Institute s exhibition at the book tradefair Libri in Olomouc. In July 2005 we co-operated in the installation of the exposition Československá cela (č. 82) (The Czechoslovak Cell No. 82), in the The Memorial to the Victims of Communism and to the Resistance in Sighet, Romania. In September of the same year we prepared the exhibit Zakázané knihy, zakázaná témata (The Prohibited Books, the Prohibited Topics) at the Polish Institute in Prague. For the Bohumil Hrabal conference in Udine, held in October of the same year, we prepared the exhibit of Bohumil Hrabal s books published in samizdat. October 2006 found us taking part in the book tradefair in Pisa with a lecture on samizdat and an exhibit. In March 2007 we organized an exhibition of samizdat at the Prague Crossroads the Church of Saint Anne, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary meeting of Charter 77 and commemoration of the legacy of Jan Patočka. We also co-operated in organizing the exhibit Souhlasím s prohlášením Charty 77 z (I Agree with the Charter 77 Declaration of 1 January, 1977), which took place at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague in March At the same time we lent material for an exhibition at the National Museum in Prague, Charta 77 a její doba, doba a její Charta (The Charter 77 in its Times, History and the Charter 77). We also lent one of our valuable works of samizdat the book Bratři lví srdce by Astrid Lindgren - to the Royal Library in Stockholm in In December of the same year Václav Jehlička presented Jiří Gruntorád with the Award of the Ministry of Culture for contribution to the development of Czech culture for the year 2007 for (and we quote) the project Libri Prohibiti Library which he established and has directed very competently and self-sacrificingly for more than sixteen years.

9 Processing of the Collections The library's collections, including audiovisual, are being computer cataloged with the ISIS/MAKS library system, and we are currently adding to 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. OUR PUBLICATIONS Katalog knih českého exilu (Catalog of Books of the Czech Exile, ) In 1995 with the financial help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic we issued, through the publisher Primus, our Catalog of Books of the Czech Exile, , as our first book publication. It is a combination of a bibliography of 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-CZK. 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 Communications of VONS (the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted) and Reports of the East European Information Agency. These bibliographies are available to users in electronic form and also as a printed catalog (an internal printing by

10 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 (Information about Charter 77: An Article Bibliography, ) 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 Information about Charter 77: An Article Bibliography, This project was supported by the Foundation for the Development of a Civic Society from the PHARE Program of the Commission of the European Union. The 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-CZK and the paperback 315-CZK. 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 of the European Union, and the city of Prague, we issued through Ježek publisher a catalog under the title: Exile Periodicals: Catalog of Czech and Slovak Exile Periodicals and Czech Printed Material Issued Abroad after 1945, which brings together a collection of 1093 periodicals. It is something of a continuation of our Catalog of Books of the Czech Exile, , and is likewise a combination of bibliography and catalog. Its entries include all known titles of periodicals from this period published in Czech. In it we also devote attention to periodicals in Slovak and other languages. A part of the book also consists of bibliographic entries of all titles then present 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-CZK.

11 OUR RESULTS TO THE YEAR 2008 Since September 1999 we have had INTERNET pages in Czech and English, since summer 2002 in German, and since the end of 2006 also in French at our address: 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 7188 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 our 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. Our Catalog of Czechoslovak Exile Book Publications Issued from 1948 to the Present contains 4300 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 570 records, and with the catalog of publications of the Czechoslovak wartime exile, which contains 550 records. The catalog of books of the First Resistance (66 records) and of exile publications by Czechs (400 entries) has been completed. 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 The

12 inventory of this archive (59 cartons) was completed in 2005, and the collection itself is being gradually completed. The total inventory will be placed on our website this year. Last year we increased our collection by more than 1200 books and about 250 periodical titles, mostly through gifts and purchases. The following parts of our collection expanded the most significantly: Czech samizdat monographs by 300 units Exile monographs by 150 units Foreign-language monographs by Czechs living abroad, by 430 units The reference library by 300 units The audiovisual collection by 85 audio cassettes, 20 video cassettes, 10 phonograph records, 170 CD-ROMs, and 40 DVD recordings 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. Together with several samizdat publications we have processed over 4000 pages. Last year we completely transferred to electronic form the exile periodical Nový život (approximately pages) and in part the samizdat periodical Informace o Chartě 77 (about 2500 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. Results of the Grant Project Výbor na obranu nespravedlivě stíhaných. Politická perzekuce, opozice a nezávislé aktivity v Č eskoslovensku v letech during our first year of work on it (2007) The main goal of this project is the critical publication of documents of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted, specifically 1125 records of cases of persecution, and of other documents which were never officially issued. In the first year of the project a selection of basic models for editing of the communications was done, and these were transcribed. Approximately a further eighty documents of the committee were collected.

13 These were never formally issued and will become a part of the edition. These, too, have already been for the most part transcribed. Abstracts of all the documents were prepared, and the first issue of the collection is going to press. Student Periodicals from the 1960 s In 2007 we also began work on the project of making available periodicals created in the context of the student movement of the 1960 s. So far 87 periodicals with a total of about 1700 pages (for example, Buchar, Impuls, and Elixír) have been collected from various sources and scanned. During 2008 we want to place their electronic copies on our website. We hope to add still further examples to this collection. The Charter 77 Collection (8 cartons, 30 inventory units) In 2007 the Charter 77 collection was made available to us to put in order. In view of the increased interest in this collection in connection with the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Charter 77, we have so far processed an interim inventory list. We are counting on compiling a definitive inventory this year. This material includes a collection of documents issued by Charter 77, their conceptions, foreign reactions to Charter 77, also texts reflecting the activities and the existence of Charter 77 itself. Manifestations of solidarity with its signatories, documentation on the meetings of the signatories after 1989, discussions of their activities after the fall of the communist regime, related historical research, and articles about Charter 77 are also included. Personal Collections In 2007 several personal collections were put in order and their inventories and catalogs prepared. They include the collections of Otakar Veverka (2 cartons), Jarmila Charfreitag (1 carton), and Hana Šklíbová (1 carton). We also began work on cataloging the personal collection of Ladislav Radimský, which was donated to us by the Hoover Institute (23 cartons). GOALS OF THE LIBRARY FOR 2008 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

14 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 this year it will be the catalog of exile and foreign periodicals by Czechs living abroad which were issued after 1945 (854 records) continue expanding 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 complete the project of issuing 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 of Czechs Abroad. In view of the constantly 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 taxdeductible in the Czech Republic. REQUEST Although the library already contains the most extensive collection of the exile and samizdat press from the period mentioned, there still 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. If you still have old samizdat or exile books, newspapers, periodicals, phonograph records, recordings, films, brochures, flyers, newsletters,

15 photographs of activities of Czechs living abroad, correspondence of personalities active in exile, etc., please let us hear from you! It's really important! No less important, however, is financial support. Last year, thanks to the kind help of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and The Czechoslovak Commercial Bank (ČSOB), we were able to maintain a balanced budget. This year our situation will not necessarily be as favorable. 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 WORD OF THANKS Our thanks go to the following people and organizations: The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic - (580,000-CZK) ČSOB, a.s. - (400,000-CZK) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic - (161,700-CZK) + Jaroslav Švestka - (68,232-CZK) Luděk Volf - (55,555-CZK) Starman Bohemia - (25,000-CZK) Jiří Bednář - (20,000-CZK) Josef Škvorecký Literary Academy - (20,000-CZK) Spolek Domov Basilej - (18,238-CZK) Radmila Locherová - (10,000-CZK) Jaromír Neumann - (10,000-CZK) Jiří Fragner - (10,000-CZK) Milena and Milan Paul - (10,000-CZK) Ivan M. Havel - (10,000-CZK) Zdeněk Vašíček - (10,000-CZK) and others, including Judith Lego (5,595-CZK), Oldřich Černý (5,000-CZK), Karel Jadrný (5,000-CZK), Marta Schmid (4,000-CZK), Taťjána Dohnalová (3,000-CZK), Simona Kovandová (3,000-CZK), and Tomáš Vrba (3.000-CZK), all contributions of 3,000-CZK or more. Still further members of our society deserve thanks for their gifts, which totaled 92,395-CZK. We received contributions, unfortunately, from only 29 of our 182 members. We also thank the many individuals who gave us their

16 generous help. I mention Lois Russell especially, who has, among other things, translated our annual reports into English for many years now; Johanna Posset, who takes care of our German internet pages; Helena Berthelon, who translated our internet pages into French; Karel Trinkewitz for his kind consent to let us use his graphic design on the cover of this year s Annual Report; 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 very 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. Prague, January 29, 2008 Jiří Gruntorád