Welcome to the Library

Library of the National Archives is a public library. With more than half a million volumes, it is the largest archive library in the Czech Republic. It provides access to domestic and foreign library documents, especially in the fields of archival science, history of administration and law, history and auxiliary historical sciences.

The library collection contains:

• Libraries of the predecessors of the National Archives (former Central State Archives) – the Provincial Archives of Bohemia, the Central Archives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Central Agro-Forestry Archives – made available through the online catalogue
• Libraries of defunct authorities, institutions, schools, associations, religious orders
• Libraries of editorial archives of defunct publishing houses (Orbis, Svoboda, Mona)
• Personal libraries and torsos of family libraries
• An extensive collection of domestic and foreign newspapers, mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries (the oldest title from 1717–1731)

Specific and valuable documents:

• Statutes and annual reports of schools, museums, institutions, enterprises
• Legal codes, official bulletins, schematisms
• Old prints (more than 13,000 volumes)
• Manuscripts (about 330 volumes)
• Incunabula (135 titles)

The most important historical collections are the Maltese Library and the Library of the Piarist College of Prague.

Registration of readers

Library of the National Archives provides services primarily to Archives’ employees and provides on-site study to the general public (for persons older than 15 years) free of charge.

Details can be found in the Library Regulations.

Library services can be used on the basis of personal registration.

A registered reader proves his/her identity with a library card. For the first order you can use temporary pre-registration in the online catalogue.