Peacock, L.

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UCL Discovery

Czech collections at UCL SSEES LibraryLenka PeacockSituated in London's Bloomsbury, on the edge of UCL's campus and within easyreach of the British Library at St Pancras, the UCL School of Slavonic and EastEuropean Studies and its library attract students and scholars from all over the world.The School was founded in 1915 as part of King's College London. In October 1915the Czech academic and future President of Czechoslovakia Tomáš GarrigueMasaryk gave the inaugural address on "The problems of small nations in theEuropean crisis". During the first decades of the School's activities, the Czechoslovakgovernment provided generous funds for the teaching of Czech and Slovaklanguages, literature and history, and also donated some books to the library. In1932 the School left King's College and became an institute of the University ofLondon. In January 1939 the School moved to the newly built Senate House, with thehelp of a gift of £26,000 from the Czechoslovak Government. In 1999 the Schoolmerged with UCL.The School is the largest centre for the study of Central, Eastern and South-EastEurope and Russia in the UK. It has almost 700 students: over 500 at undergraduatelevel and some 200 graduate students on Master's degrees or undertaking PhDresearch. Over 60 academic staff teach and conduct research in the history,economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, culture, literature and languages of thecountries of the region. The School and the Library are housed in a newly purpose-built building in Taviton Street. It was opened in October 2005 by the Princess Royal,in the presence of Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, who gave anaddress on “The problem of small nations in the European Crisis” to reflect the factthat nearly a century on, Masaryk's 1915 topic of his address of the same title is stillrelevant today. František Bílek's stone statue called "Spirit of the Slavs", presented tothe School by Lord Brotherton of Wakefield, stands guard in the foyer of the building.The library entrance is on the ground floor, and its space occupies four floors of thebuilding. The Library's collections comprise almost 400,000 printed volumes, twothirds of which are on open access. Rare and fragile material is stored in local storesand less frequently used material is at stores in Essex.Material for the library collections comes from several sources. The library purchasesthe majority of its books through vendors in the UK or abroad. In the past somematerial came in as part of various exchange programmes. Throughout the Library'shistory there have been some generous donations from academics and politicalfigures connected to the School. Periodicals and books were donated by theGovernment of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Embassy in London. In 1946 a largecollection of Czech literature, literary criticism and history was donated by JanMasaryk and Edvard Beneš after the return of the Czechoslovak Government in Exileto Czechoslovakia. In 1951 the library received a valuable gift of about 300 booksfrom the library of the late Jan Masaryk.The collection relating to the former Czechoslovakia has been divided into threeseparate classes to reflect the political changes that have taken place within theregion: Cs (works relating to the former Czechoslovakia or works covering both theCzech Republic and Slovakia), Cz (works relating solely to the Czech Republic) andSk (works relating solely to Slovakia).The Library holds a large collection of periodicals covering all areas of the School'sinterests. Currently some 1,100 journal titles and over 90 newspapersare subscribed to. The library receives Czech newspapers: issues of Hospodářskénoviny, Lidové noviny, Mladá fronta dnes, Právo and The Prague Post arrive on theshelves every week. Czech journals cover a wide range of subjects from Czechliterature and linguistics to history, politics and economics. The library subscribes toNaše řeč, Český časopis historický, Respekt, Mezinárodní vztahy, Mezinárodnípolitika, Revue politika, Ekonom, Prague Economic Papers and Ochrana přírody toname the most important ones. Students and staff of UCL have free access to a vastnumber of databases, electronic journals and full-text e-resources.The library’s archive material relating to the Czech lands comes from individuals ororganisations with a connection to the School. An on-line guide to these uniquecollections is available at http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/archives/newguid2.htmThe most important archive material, containing documents relating to the politicsand foreign affairs of Czechoslovakia, is the Seton-Watson Collection. Robert WilliamSeton-Watson, an independent scholar and expert on Austria-Hungary, hadinfluential contacts throughout the British establishment and played a prominent rolein establishing the School of Slavonic Studies at King’s College in 1915. He wasappointed the first holder of the Masaryk chair in Central European history in 1922, apost he held until 1945. The collection contains his correspondence with T GMasaryk and the papers relating to regions that united as Czechoslovakia in 1918.Seton-Watson was in close contact with prominent Czechoslovak exiles in Britain,notably the president in exile, Beneš, and as a result the archive contains interestingcorrespondence relating to the Czechoslovak affairs in the Second World War.Researchers from around the world visit the Library to study the archive of KarelLisicky, who served in the Czechoslovak diplomatic service from its foundation in1918. In 1936 Lisicky was given the post of counsellor of the Czechoslovak embassyin London. He remained in this position throughout the Second World War. Duringthat time Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany and the CzechoslovakGovernment in exile was based in London. Lisicky resigned from the diplomaticservice after the Communists took power in Czechoslovakia in 1948. He spent therest of his life in exile in Britain. The Lisicky Collection contains documents onCzechoslovak foreign relations, including material on the aftermath of the First WorldWar, the League of Nations between 1934 and 1937, the Munich Agreement and itsconsequences and the Czechoslovak Government in exile between 1939 and 1945.It also covers the Sudeten minority problem, peace negotiations with Germany andAustria between 1944 and 1947 and the United Nations between 1945 and 1948.The biggest archive collection devoted to the Czech lands is the Masaryk Collection.It contains material relating to the politician and diplomat Jan Masaryk. He was theson of the first President of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. Jan wasCzechoslovak Minister in London 1925-1938 and Foreign Minister in both the Czechémigré government in London during the Second World War and the first Czechpost-war government 1940-1948. He remained in his post after the Communistsassumed control in February 1948. He died soon afterwards in obscurecircumstances as the result of a fall from the window of the Foreign Office in Prague.The archive contains scrapbooks of his memorabilia, a binder containing his notes onhis speeches on the Munich Agreement and his diaries listing his appointments.There are also photographs of T G Masaryk's 80th birthday lunch, the bas relief of TG Masaryk and of Jan Masaryk.I have been working at the UCL SSEES Library since 1996. At first I was employedon a temporary contract to catalogue a backlog of Russian material. This work led tomy obtaining a permanent position as a cataloguer of Slavic collections. Graduallythe job developed and these days I also look after the rare books collection, whichhouses a considerable collection of almost 800 early publications dating from 1531 to1850. Among the Czech volumes, J.A. Comenii Ianua linguarum reserata, publishedin Amsterdam in 1649, and Melchioris Goldasti Heiminsfeldii, Commentarii de regniBohemiae, published in Frankfurt in 1719, are highly treasured. The latter came tothe library as a gift from the Library of Jan Masaryk. I also participate in curatingexhibitions within the UCL SSEES Library and within the wider context of UCLLibrary Services.The Library welcomes external visitors who would find the collections interesting anduseful. Academic staff from UK and foreign universities and research postgraduatesare entitled to free reference access to the Library. Undergraduates and taughtpostgraduates from other UK universities can access the library free of charge duringour vacation. Private scholars and members of public can pay a fee to join the library.Anyone wishing to join the library must bring proof of their ID, such as a drivinglicence or passport, and also proof of their home address.To browse the Library’s web site, visit http://www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/library/index.htm

Czech collections at UCL SSEES Library

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