A biographical team was first formed at the Biographical Archive during the 1970s, and then in modern times in 2016. By means of active excerption it collects the biographical data of the individuals involved in Czech literary life, which it then verifies by means of archive research. The team’s main objectives include building an analogue card index and a publicly accessible online Czech Literary Biographical Database, collaborating with individual Czech Literary Bibliography teams to create or update personal entries or those on corporateauthorities and to carry out systematic research into literary pseudonyms and initialisms. Not least, at a national level the team participates in a cooperative project to create personal and corporate national authorities, which is covered and methodologically managed by the Czech National Library. As part of this collaboration, a project to harmonize the personal authorities databases at the ICL with the collection of national authorities at the Czech National Library has been under way for several years within the framework of the annually announced grant procedure at the Libraries Public Information Service.
As part of its coordination duties the Biographical Team also offers specialist consultations and an advisory service for the broad public. Team members also play an active role in the popularization of science and scholarship, both with their lecture and publication activities and by providing specialist practice and study trips for secondary school pupils. These study trips mostly take place as part of the Czech Academy of Sciences Open Science project for talented pupils.
Team leader: PhDr. Petra Večeřová, Ph.D.
Contact address: bioarchiv@ucl.cas.cz
