General circulation policy

I. Basic provisions

Article 1 – Legal basis

In compliance with Czech National Council Act No. 283/1992 Coll. on the Czech Academy of Sciences, as amended by Act No. 220/2000 Coll., with the Statutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences of 19 February 2001 (Article 46d), and with the founding charter of the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, to which the library belongs, I hereby issue these Library Terms and Conditions.

Article 2 – Library mission

The mission of the library is to collect, process, keep, and provide open access to the scientific information contained within the library's specialized collection serving the research needs of the Institute of History.

Article 3 – Other provisions

In compliance with Article 17, Paragraph 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, the library ensures equal access to information not only for its own employees but also for the general public, to whom it provides library and information services according to Act No. 257/2001 Coll. on libraries and the terms and conditions governing the operation of public libraries and the provision of information services.

Article 4 – Advisory body

In matters relating to the library, the advisory body of the director of the Institute of History is the Library Council, the members of which are appointed by the director of the Institute.

II. Library and information sources

The makeup of the library's primary and secondary collections corresponds thematically to the Institute's research activities. The collection is systematically augmented through purchases and exchanges as well as acquisitions from other sources in coordination and collaboration with libraries of the same or related specialization. The library collection is not limited only to traditional carriers of information but also houses electronic data sources and collections.

III. Public library and information services

The library provides its services on a priority basis to employees of the Institute. Members of the general public may access library documents, such as bibliographic, reference, and factographic information and research papers, free of charge. The library can also facilitate the transfer of information from external sources and provide access to external information sources that it has free access to. The library also participates in the interlibrary loan service (ILS).

IV. Users of library and information services

Article 1 – User categories

Users of the library and information services are divided into two categories:

a) internal – employees of the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences (persons on record with the Institute's human resources department)
b) external – employees of other institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences, universities, and the general public (persons not on record with the library or the Institute).

Article 2 – User obligations

All users of the library are obligated to adhere to the Library Terms and Conditions.

V. Circulation policy

Article 1 – General lending terms and conditions

The borrowing of documents from the Institute's own library and information collection is available to all users free of charge. Off-site loans of materials from the library's collectioncollection or from the collections of other libraries is available to internal users only. External users are allowed to borrow materials for reference only. Off-site loans by persons not employed by the Institute is possible through the interlibrary loan service only.

Article 2 – Types of loans

Information sources are lent for home use in the lending room during normal opening hours. A loan card is issued for each borrowed information source and must be filled out correctly and legibly by the user and signed. The librarian will then verify the information on the card.

Article 3 – Circulation restrictions

With regard to the work and needs of the Institute's employees, the library restricts lending of certain types of information sources as follows:

a) information sources belonging to the reference library and individual issues of journals for a given year may be borrowed for reference only.
b) dissertations, old prints, incunables, valuable unique works (some categories are further subject to special conditions, such as author consent, prohibited copying, etc.)

Article 4 – Lending procedure

The library will prepare the requested information source for the user according to the library's operating procedures. The prepared information source is reserved for the user for a period of two weeks unless agreed otherwise. If a user request a borrowed book, it will be possible to reserve it by an email.

Article 5 – ILS from the collections of other libraries

If the library collection does not contain a requested information source, an internal user may ask the library to obtain it through the interlibrary loan service or the international interlibrary loan service. In such cases, the user must consent to the terms and conditions of the lending library. The terms and conditions of borrowing from external libraries are governed by special regulations.

Article 6 – Loan period

Loan period is 1 month. If a borrowed information source has not been requested by another user, the loan period for employees of the Institute is automatically renewed in 1-month intervals. The maximum loan period, including automatic renewals, is 2 years, after which the user is required to return the information source to the library for inspection. Journals are lent for a maximum of 2 weeks. Loans from the library collection to external users are by means of the interlibrary loan service only and are subject to standard ILS rules (loan duration 1 month, renewal must be requested prior to expiry of the original loan).

Article 7 – Loan inspection

The library reserves the right to inspect its loans, during which users are required to present for inspection all the information sources they have borrowed from the library catalogue.

Article 8 – Returning borrowed materials

When returning borrowed materials, the librarian will give the user the part of the loan card that was signed by the user (the original). This serves as proof of return.

Article 9 – Other provisions

Employees of the Institute are strictly prohibited from lending to third parties any information sources from the library collection or those on loan from the collections of affiliated libraries. Responsibility for borrowed information sources rests solely with the user who signed the loan card! Users must report damage to or loss of an information source to the library without delay. The Library Council will recommend one of the following forms of compensation to the director of the Institute:

a) provision of an intact copy of the work in the same issue and with a binding of comparable quality;
b) provision of a copy obtained and paid for by the user;
c) substitution with another publication of comparable quality and value.

Should a user fail to uphold his or her obligations to the library, the Institute reserves the right to pursue legal action to recover a lost information source.

Prior to the conclusion of employment at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, employees are required to return all information sources borrowed from the library or affiliated libraries. This provision also applies to long-term leaves of absence (more than 3 months) unless other arrangements have been made.

Any user diagnosed with a serious infectious disease (hepatitis, etc.) is required to disinfect all borrowed information sources prior to returning them to the library. The borrowing privileges of such persons will be suspended until they have fully recovered.

VI. Copy and reprographic services

Copy services are available to external users for a fee, the amount and method of payment of which is determined by the internal guidelines of the Institute's Administration and Finance Department. The library reserves the right to refuse to make a copy if it is in violation of the law or requires handling the original document or book in a manner that will likely result in damage to it.

VII. Final provisions

Users are required to adhere to the library's lending terms and conditions and comply with stipulated inspection measures. Repeated violation of the terms and conditions by an employee of the Institute may be assessed as serious misconduct as defined by the labour code. Repeated violations of the library's terms and conditions on the part of an external user may result in revocation of the user's borrowing privileges. Exceptions to the circulation policy and conditions may be granted by the head of the Institute, his deputy, the research secretary, and the head of the library. The general circulation policy are issued by the director of the Institute.

These Library Terms and Conditions came into effect on 1 December 2002.

Notice
For ILS, we charge postage per standard Česká pošta rates
 i.e. registered parcel + weight of the book. We charge 2 CZK per page + postage for copies of articles.

The reading room has Wi-Fi connectivity.