A biographical research group first formed at the Biographical Archive in the 1970s. The current version dates from 2016. As part of their ongoing archival and field research, staff collect biographical information about key Czech literary figures. One goal of this work is to build the section’s analogue card index and publicly accessible online Czech Literary Biographical Database. Working with different sections of the CLB, the team also creates and updates records on individuals and corporate bodies (associations, publishers, companies, government agencies, institutions, NGOs, performing groups, etc.) and systematically researches literary pseudonyms and acronyms. No less significant is its role in a joint national-level project to establish and standardise authority files for individuals and corporate bodies. This project is organised and led by the Czech National Library. For some years, a parallel project has also been under way to align the ICL’s authority data for individuals with the national name authority file of the Czech National Library. This work is funded by the annual grant from the Public Libraries Information Service.
As part of its coordination role, the Biographical Archive Section offers expert advice and consultations to the general public. Staff also promote research and scholarship in their lectures and publications and provide other expert services including study tours for secondary school students. These trips are mostly linked to the Czech Academy of Sciences’s Open Science project for research-minded students.
Head: PhDr. Petra Večeřová, Ph.D.
Contact address: bioarchiv@ucl.cas.cz
The conference Wikimedia versus Traditional Biographical Dictionaries?, organised by the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in collaboration with Wikimedia Czech Republic, will take place next Monday on the 31st of March in Prague. read more
On 22–24 November 2023, this year’s edition of the Open Science Programme came to an end. The programme is run by the Czech Academy of Sciences and it allows high school students to experience working in a scientific institution for one year. The Biographical Archive of the Czech Literary Bibliography has participated in this programme for the fifth time. read more
Every year, the Biographical Archive Section of the Czech Literary Bibliography organises a year-long internship within the Open Science programme dedicated to high school students who want to gain practical experience at a biographical academic workplace (internship will be under the guidance of the lecturer Petra Večeřová). Applications for 2024 are open until 30 November 2023. read more
The Faculty of Humanities of Charles University will hold a conference on the occasion of Jaroslav Hašek’s double jubilee on June 5–6, 2023. The two-day event, entitled Jaroslav Hašek in Philosophical, Literary and Historical Contexts, will take place in Lipnice nad Sázavou and aims to open up a space for interdisciplinary overlaps, especially the dialogue between philosophy, literary studies, translation and history. read more
The Institute of History of the CAS will hold a workshop entitled Biographical Databases – Possibilities and Limits of Electronic Dictionaries and Databases on May 30, 2023. The workshop will include presentations on the current state of the subject and the difficulties related to the topic. read more
