New director of the NK Kocanda awakens the idea of a new building

He suggests that it is also possible to consider collaboration with other cultural institutions in Prague, both state and municipal. They could share either the spaces freed in Klementinum or even in the new building if the government agrees to the construction. "So far, no talks about this possibility have taken place, but it presents itself as a feasible option," he said.

"After the revitalization of Klementinum and the reconstruction of Hostivař are completed, we expect that in the pessimistic scenario we will have space for storing volumes until 2036. In the more optimistic scenario, sometime until 2040, 2046," he said. When three years ago the NK opened the Central Storage Facility in Hostivař, it indicated that it would gain capacity for books for the next 50 to 60 years.

"It depends on how the annual increase in new books will look," he said. "We are working with a prediction of an increase between 70,000 and 100,000 volumes per year, but we do not know what the impact of digitization will be on the number of published books," he pointed out. The number of physical book carriers could thus decrease.

Klementinum has been under renovation for seven years, and the total cost of the work is estimated at 1.88 billion. In 2009, the government buried the project for a new building and leaned towards the renovation of the former Jesuit college and the expansion of storage facilities. However, this has been criticized by librarians for several years, and they have developed a study of several variants for the future functioning of the NK, which also work with the possibilities of a new building. So far, however, no director has spoken loudly about a new building after the fiasco with Kaplický's blob, a government-rejected construction with modern library technologies. Kocanda says that his first meeting with the new Minister of Culture will be about it.

He criticizes the daily transportation of books between the center of Prague and Hostivař. "A reader comes in, selects a book, and has to wait for the car from Hostivař. We do not consider that appropriate for the 21st century," Kocanda said. It harms NK's clients, the environment, and the books, he added. According to him, a change is not possible in the current functioning of the library. "But I think the new government should return to the resolution from 2009 and revoke it," he said.

Besides the needed capacity, the reason for the new construction, according to the director, is also the fact that new technologies, such as conveyor belts for books, cannot be installed in the renovated Klementinum. "The library should be designed to meet the needs of libraries for at least several decades; a new building is not built for 50 years," he added.

The building designed for the NK by Jan Kaplický is from 2007; not only has technology progressed since then, but after the architect's death, it is problematic to transfer the building from paper to reality.

Kocanda says he liked the project nicknamed the blob. "The second thing is the situation of the NK. I believe that a new building will happen, and I want to strive for that very much," he stated. However, the government must first respond positively to the project, then a suitable location must be found, according to Kocanda, necessarily accessible by metro, and only then would the NK look for a new form for its future headquarters.