The library of the American Center is developing collection focusing on social sciences, primarily history, political science, international relation, economy, sociology, etc.
The selection of books is based on recommendations and reviews from academic magazines and U.S. periodicals (e.g. New York Review of Books, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, etc.). The library positions itself as complementary to other social science libraries – the library staff builds collection after consulting catalogues of other specialized libraries in Prague and purchases books that are not available elsewhere.
The catalogue of the library is available online and is currently updated and upgraded. All the books receive a bar code so that they can be borrowed out of the library for a period of one month. After the catalogue is updated, it is our goal to have the American Center's library collection added to the general catalogue of the Czech Republic. This catalogue, maintained by the National Library of the Czech Republic, links majority of libraries in the Czech Republic and thus facilitates search for a particular book or document.
The library of the American Center caters primarily to university students, general public, as well as the Embassy staff.
Besides collection of books, the American Center´s library also makes available numerous daily newspapers (both Czech and American), magazines, and scholarly publications. Major ones are available in paper, many others are available through prepaid databases that the library makes available to the readers - namely JSTOR and EBSCO. The library staff can help the visits in navigating these databases.
The library staff can provide specific advice on U.S.-related research. Information resources staff can help visitors locate information online as well as refer them to other libraries in Prague which may have material needed for specific research.
Video Collection
There are around 90 titles in the collection divided into six categories: Global issues, U.S. History, U.S. Society, U.S. Culture, Feature films. All videos can be viewed on our American Center video stations during opening hours (Mon-Thu 1-4 p.m.). The complete list can be downloaded here.
