Archives in the CR fall under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior. The network of archives in the country is formed by public and private archives with accreditation. The category of public archives also includes specialised archives, as accredited institutions, and there are organisations administered by the MC that belong to this category. This particularly applies to the National Film Archive, the mission of which is to protect film heritage, help the public to learn about this heritage, and assist in the development of the Czech audio-visual industry and film culture. The archive was founded in 1943 and is one of the ten oldest and biggest film archives in the world. Other such organisations under the authority of the MC that this pertains to are the Archive of the National Museum, the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature, the Archive of the National Gallery, the Archive of the National Library, the Archive of the National Technical Museum, and the Archive of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.
In 2018 the Government of the CR adopted the Concept of Support for the Work of Archiving for 2018-2025 with a View to 2035 (Ministry of Interior, 2018). The Concept focuses on evaluating the progress and development of archive work to the year 2017 and on this basis establishing the goals and steps that will lead to the further development of archive work and the functioning of archives. The objective is to define the basic problem areas in existing legislation on archive work and records management. It also addresses the issue of digital archiving and other areas associated with the introduction of electronic administration into the work of public administration and with the development of new technologies.
The CR has a very wide network of public libraries that has existed since the 1920s. In 2020, according to NIPOS statistical data, there were 5307 public libraries in the country. Public libraries are by law registered in a database maintained by the MC. The MC also administers three contributory organisations in this area: the National Library of the Czech Republic, the Moravian Library in Brno, and the K. E. Macan Library and Printing Office for the Blind. The MC’s advisory body on library and information services is the Central Library Board of the CR, which is also involved in drawing up key strategic materials, and it issues approval of some of these materials itself (the Concept for Lifelong Education or the National Concept for the Long-Term Protection of Digital Data in Libraries).
In 2019 an initiative called For Libraries! was founded in support of libraries that points to the long-term underfunding of library professions and to the social and environmental dimensions of the work that is connected to the dense network of libraries throughout the country.
Currently, the Concept of Support for Libraries in the CR for 2021-2027 with a view to 2030 is in force. Its task is to integrate the library system into the Strategic Framework Czech Republic 2030. The Concept formulates a basic vision of the development of the system within the three basic pillars: Libraries as pillars of civil society and natural centres, Libraries as institutions supporting education and learning, and Libraries as administrators of cultural and knowledge assets.
Each year the MC announces several special programmes relating to various areas of support for libraries, from digital access to the purchasing of publications and community work among small public libraries.
In 2020 and 2021, during the period of the Covid-19 closure of physical education in schools, the National Library, in agreement with the Agency of authors and other copyright holders DILIA, made over 206,000 titles of monographs and periodicals temporarily available online to students and teachers of universities. The agreement allowed access to the digitized holdings of the National Library and public universities online through the Kramerius application.
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