Social and Natural Sciences Reading Room

Mon-Sat: 9.00 - 19.00

Anybody with a valid National Library card, or admission ticket, may use the General Reading Room.

• almost ten thousand volumes of encyclopedias, handbooks and a selection of Czech and foreign-language monographs, mainly in the humanities and social and natural sciences and 50+ electronic resources (especially CD-ROMs)
  • Volumes are categorized in Classified Arrangement of the Social and Natural Science Reading Room
  • you will find shelf marks of the Reading Room collection in OPAC (for example SSV 316.36 EXP )
    -items with a note „open shelves“ – you may pick yourselves
    -for items with notes „ask the staff - at the desk“and „ask the staff - adjacent repository“ please ask the librarian

• National Digital Library is made available through the system Kramerius (access on 1 work station; access to public domain works also through Wi-Fi)

• Licensed online databases (available through Wi-Fi) including 
• the National Library databases and a selection of other resources are accessible on a LAN working station - temporarily unavailable

• access to
  • OPAC
    • Electronic Catalogue of the National Library of the Czech Republic
    • -subdatabase Documents available in reading rooms
  • Scanned catalogues

• use of materials from the Reading Room reference collection
  • for your convenience publications are mostly on open shelves
  • ask the librarian for the ones shelved at the desk or on dedicated racks
• delivery of microfilms and microfiches
• -there is a limit of maximum 10 items; reservation of materials for  up to 7 days only
• in the case you need to use a print item delivered from the stacks jointly with a non-print material or an online resource address the librarian
• delivery of materials with sound (and, in exceptional cases, audio-visual) recordings
• making accessible electronic resources (CD-ROMs, diskettes ...)
  • please note: making accessible non-print material takes place in reduced opening hours
• referral and consulting services
• self-service copying
• photoduplication orders
• Rules of information technology use in Social & Natural Sciences Reading Room
• Wireless Internet Access (Wi-Fi)
• two places for persons with a grave physical disability and their assistants