The library of the Institute of Botany is ranked within the public library and informational service system. It is described as a research library with a specialized collection that is used mainly to meet the needs of scientific research centers. Even though the library mainly serves the employees from the Institute of Botany and researchers from various other institutions, library materials are available to the wider public at no cost. It also provides bibliographic, reference and factual information.

The library works with the National library of the Czech Republic, and with the Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences  and participates in the building up of joint catalogues.  Information on our library’s collections can be found on the web pages of the National library (information about international journals) and on the web pages of the Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences (information on some of our collections) or on our library’s web pages.

Focus of the Library

The library of the Institute of Botany has a long-term goal of expanding the library collection that focuses mainly on the botany topics that are priority for the Institute. These topics include the taxonomy of plants and fungi (except that of algae and cyanobacteria the literature for which is collected in Třeboň), mapping plants, phytocenology and vegetation mapping, plant ecology, and the history of botanical research in Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic. Over the years private collections that we have managed to obtain have been included in the library, making our library one of the most important literature sources in Central Europe.Specifically, these include the following sets/collections:

• Flora of temperate zones of both hemispheres with few representatives of flora from the tropic areas. The collections for Europe and especially Central Europe are very complete. An abundant amount of flora from the former Soviet Union is also available.
• Taxonomic literature: the library has book and offprint collections from several well-known 20^th century Czech taxonomists, e.g., Karel Domin, Josef Holub and Ivan Klášterské. Literature on lower plants was inherited from Zdeněk Pilous (a large bryology collection) and a large lichenology library from Antonín Vězda.
• Phytocenological literature: in this part of the library we have the most valuable collection of Jaromír Klika. This collection covers a substantial part of phytocenological literature in Europe from the first half of the 20^th century. Other parts include the collections of Rudolf Mikyška and Miloš Deyl, and currently the book collections of the married couple Zdena and Robert Neuhäusl.
• Hydrobotanical literature including the collections of Slavomil Hejné and Bohuslav Fott (algology) can be found in the library in Třeboň.

Head: Ing. Veronika Macáková
E-mail: veronika.macakova@ibot.cas.cz
E-mail for interlibrary loan services: mvs@ibot.cas.cz
Tel.: +420 271 015 218, 277, 242

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