Name: Czech Literary Bibliography
Institution: Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Coordinator: Mgr. Vojtěch Malínek, Ph.D.; malinek@ucl.cas.cz
Website
CLB is the only large research infrastructure for research into literature and literary culture in the Czech lands with a tradition going back over 70 years. Its activities are based on processing and making ongoing additions to an analytical bibliography of Czech literature which consistently charts the reflections of Czech (and selectively, world) literature and culture in the periodical press and the output of books published in the Czech lands in all historical languages of communication. The CLB databases chronologically cover the period from the end of the 18th century to the recent past and contain a total of more than 2.2 million entries. At the same time, CLB is also involved in compiling associated knowledge databases (e.g. of literary figures and literary prizes). It is only with difficulty that comparisons with CLB can be made at a European level in terms of the number and quality of entries, the length of the period covered, the topicality of the excerption and the methodological standard. CLB data is available in standardized formats that enable it to be efficiently utilized in national and international scientific information exchange networks. All CLB resources are available to users online without any limitations in open-access mode at the CLB website and through other collaborating systems (e.g. at Knihovny.cz). CLB is also active in open source software development and digitization (RETROBI index card digitization software) fields. In addition to providing online tools for working with data, CLB also provides an information service and specialist consultations
with researchers from the Czech Republic and abroad, i.e. Bohemists and scholars from associated disciplines (e.g. theatre studies, history, philosophy and other modern philologies). Moreover, CLB services are used by media professionals and specialists in creative fields, as well as publishing, cultural and pedagogical staff. The number of visits to the CLB web interface exceeds 80,000 a year. CLB collaborates closely with higher education institutes, organizing training sessions and workshops for their students and directly taking part in their tuition. It also offers employment for graduates in Czech studies and related disciplines, as well as Ph.D. studies programme participants. In the field of data exchange, it liaises closely with Instytut Badań Literackich at the Polish Academy of Sciences in particular and coordinates the Consortium for the Creation and Communication of World Czech Literary Studies Resources, using it to chart impressions made by Czech literature and culture abroad. CLB partner institutes are active in Europe and North America in particular, but links have also been forged with partner organizations e.g. in South Korea, Japan and China.
