Study and Information Services Centre of the library of the Faculty of Arts introduced ****************************************************************************************** * Study and Information Services Centre of the library of the Faculty of Arts introduced t ****************************************************************************************** Study and Information Services Centre of the library of the Faculty of Arts introduced to Yesterday's introduction of the new Study and Information Services Centre of the library o Charles University Faculty of Arts brought an end to the difficult four-year process of th reconstruction. “I started to think the library to be cursed, but now I can see we reached was a long ride and by no means easy, but now we can see it was worth it”, said the Dean o Arts, Michal Stehlík, Ph.D. “Construction of the Centre was the most significant task I had to deal with after assumin very happy to put it behind me and focus on new things”, continued the Vice-dean of the Fa development, Mr. Jiří Gregor. The four years were spent not only by the construction itself. A lot of time was spent red project of the cenre, doing a complete overhaul of the whole philosophy of the library to requirements of the 21st century, a change in the construction contractor, and also extens research which revealed the ground beneath the Faculty as an interesting and valuable arch Interestingly enough, as the library's director Mrs. Šárka Frantová said, one of the first books to the library was the Institute of Prehistory and Early History. The whole project cost 70 million Czech crowns. Majority of the funding came from the stat Faculty contributed a minor part. The Metrostav company was contracted for the constructio The largest and oldest space in the Study and Information Services Centre is the first flo check-out desks, the Red Reading Room, a computer study with stacks of short-term loans an Reading Room with multimedia technology, which will be accessible on a reservation basis f teams. The Red Reading Room is designed for the students from philological programmes and selection of fiction and basic textbooks on stacks. On the floor above, the ground level, there is the Blue Reading Room with an attractive vi glassed-in gallery. It holds books from the fields of philosophy, art and social sciences magazines and academic journals, with two latest year accessible on stacks. The Green Read top floor of the library, built in place of the former Library of Slavic Literatures, is s quietest part of the library and will host books from all programmes of history the univer The centre has a capacity of 160 students and will hold up to 250,000 books, 150,000 in th 100,000 on stacks. Each floor has self-service copiers with a possibility of recharging th employee card. The computer study allows for printing of documents. Most desks have networ to accommodate for working on laptops. Lockers are provided for storing personal items whi All libraries have wireless Internet. Security measures include detection gates and securi electronic information system running on LCD panels will provide information on lectures, events at the Faculty of Arts. The library system will use RFID chips. The centre will open on April 1. During the summer, a self-service checkout system will be allowing students to check out books on their own and return them into boxes. This will ma less busy and more effective, dispatching books from the storage fast and efficiently. The wheelchair-friendly. The introduction of the Study and Information Services Centre was a unique opportunity to the scenes. The office space for four employees and three student assistants will be minim “librarians should always be at hand”. Visitors also took a tour of the special depository the storage and technical support spaces. A necessary part of the library, built undergrou Vltava river, is a concrete basin in the foundation of the library that prevents leakage a books from natural catastrophes. (Marie Kohoutová) Translation: Jaroslav Švelch