New public library plan to improve online services

Prague, Jan 11 (CTK) - The Czech coalition government yesterday approved a national development plan for public libraries for 2012-2015 that will primarily focus on online services, Culture Minister Alena Hanakova (for TOP 09) told journalists.

The priority is to find money to introduce a free Internet in more libraries and improve the online services. Approximately 25 million crowns will be earmarked this year, Hanakova said.

Money seems to be the key problem, however.

The financial support to the project will depend on the economic situation of the country in the next years.

Last year, more than two-fifths of municipal and regional libraries had their budgets lowered. Over one third reduced their acquisitions and the offer of services.

The Prague Municipal Library announced yesterday that it will have to close five of its 43 branches as of March due to budget cuts and the increase in VAT on books and magazines.

The costs of the Internet connection of public libraries, roughly 100 million crowns a year, have been covered by the Interior Ministry for several years because it took over the project along with some other agenda of the IT Ministry that had been cancelled in 2007.

As of April, the Internet to Libraries project is to be paid by the Culture Ministry that hopes to lower the price to some up to 50 million crowns a year.

The Culture Ministry's budget for libraries' public information services has been cut from 60 to 46 million crowns this year.

Further steps to be taken within the project are to be discussed by the cabinet soon, Culture Ministry spokesman Jiri Cieslar said.

Czech public libraries should permanently provide quality and available services via the Internet - 24 hours a day and seven days a week, according to the approved plan. Digitisation and other modern information technologies are the ways to achieve this goal.

There are more than 6000 libraries in the Czech Republic. Some 40 percent of adults and most children and youths use their services. Over 72 million loans of books and other documents are provided annually. The libraries receive about 22 million visitors a year and minimally the same number uses their electronic services.

($1=20.131 crowns)