The history of the library

      The beginning of the history of the Research Library was connected with the foundation of the separate Municipal Industrial Museum in Hradec Králové in 1896. From the beginning the library with its own reading room became an important part of the museum. The library holdings were gradually enlarged by important titles of native and foreign non-fiction literature. There were also books from fields of science that had nothing to do with museology. This library was the biggest specialized library in Hradec Králové which was at least partly open to the general public. The museum library was transformed into the Municipal Study Library in Hradec Králové in 1941. This library became the basis of the present Research Library.

      Efforts to establish state study libraries were more and more encouraged after the World War Two. These libraries with regional spheres of activity should have become a kind of link between local public libraries and university libraries. In our town the holdings of the former Municipal Study Library were handed over to the state ownership in 1949. The new State Study Library was opened on 4th November 1949. In this way the library acquired 34 000 titles of books and periodicals into its holdings. Another basic part of the holdings of the new institution were books and especially periodicals from the Medical Library. The Medical Library was founded in 1946 and contained about 35 000 volumes at the time of merger with the former Municipal Study Library. However, this part of the holdings was taken away from the State Study Library ownership in 1952 and became the basis of the newly established Military Medical Academy in Hradec Králové.

      Since 2001 the library has had its present name - the Research Library in Hradec Králové. The older name - the State Research Library in Hradec Králové - was given to the library in 1954. Since then the library has fulfilled its main function which has remained the same to the present day: to build universal holdings of nonfiction and provide all professional services within the whole Hradec Králove region.

      In the course of its development the library faced with insufficient and unsatisfactory space. In 1953 the library acquired ground-floor rooms in the house situated on the Eliška Embankment No 626, which was a very important milestone in its history. Some departments of the library were placed there. Other difficulties were connected with the increasing number of books and their storing. The library acquired depositories at Hrádek near Nechanice (in 1960) and at Sendražice (in 1967). At the end of the sixties a considerably dilapidated building of the former Jewish synagogue was bought at 395 Pospíšilova street. This building was gradually renovated and opened to the public as a lending room in 1971. Reconstructions continued in the course of the seventies and eighties. The main workplace of the library including the head office, the economic department, the department of acquisition and cataloguing, the department of librarianship and the automation department were situated in the building. A new large-capacity depository facility situated in Hradec Králové - Pouchov was finished in 1983. Another depository was acquired in 1987 after buying a former manor house at Stračov. However, the growing holdings required more and more space. Therefore the second depository in Hradec Králové - Pouchov was opened in September 1996 and the third in 1999. In this way the whole depository complex was finished.

      However, the rooms for readers were still insufficient, especially the lending room. A modern complex of the library has been designed and its building started in 2004. In September 2008 the new library was opened to the public.