The technical library will be moving to Dejvice from March

Prague - The State Technical Library will start moving to its new building in Prague-Dejvice from March next year. A trial operation is expected to begin in June, and the library will fully open on September 9, 2009. Jan Kratochvíl from the library's press department informed ČTK about this. During the move, the library will accommodate readers by allowing them to return publications borrowed after January 5, 2009, until June 30.
    Those who extend their borrowings after January 5 will also receive a few months' bonus. The State Technical Library is currently located in Klementinum and will remain open without any restrictions until February 28, 2009. After that, the moving will begin, but the library will offer electronic services to the maximum extent possible during the transition, promises a library representative.
    By extending the loan periods, the library claims it does not want to ease the moving process; it is a gift for the readers. There are tens of thousands of loans, and 1.2 million titles need to be relocated.
    The library will also automatically extend the validity of user cards for all users who have valid cards as of February 1, 2009, by five months free of charge. During the time the library will be closed, from March 1 to June 1, penalties for late returns will also not accrue.
    In the new National Technical Library, the public will find the collections of the State Technical Library and part of the collections from the libraries of the Czech Technical University and the University of Chemistry and Technology. Students of these schools will have the library at hand. It is expected that around 900,000 visitors will visit it annually.
    The National Library also plans to build a new technical library in the premises of Klementinum, where the State Technical Library currently resides. The freed space will be taken over by the National Library, but according to both the former and current directors of the NK, this gain will not resolve the space issues of the institution, as the STK space constitutes about one-tenth of the Klementinum's capacity.
    The new technical library is expected to cost around 2.5 billion korunas. The construction will be paid off gradually by 2014. The building will have the capacity for over 1.7 million books. About 1.2 million volumes will be stored in three underground storage areas. The rest will fit into open stacks, which will be on four above-ground floors.
    The building on Fleming Square was designed by architects Roman Brychta and Petr Lešek (Projektil Architekti), the interior was contributed by the graphic studio Laboratoř, and the concept of the artwork design for the NTK was prepared by the company PAS (Production of Contemporary Activities) - Vít Havránek, Jiří Skála, and Tomáš Vaněk. The central spaces of the library were decorated in November by Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi.