About the Library

The Finnish Library and study room is located in room P420 on the fourth floor of the main building of the Faculty of Arts. In this room, which offers a beautiful view of the Old Jewish Cemetery, readers have more than 2,000 volumes of academic and fiction books, textbooks, dictionaries, audio and video materials, and Finnish linguistic and literary journals. Most of the collection is in Finnish, of course, but it is also possible to borrow translations of Finnish fiction into Czech. Part of the collection is so unique in the Czech Republic that it is accessible only in person. In 2014, more than 1,100 books, mainly basic study literature, were transferred to the Jan Palach Library.

The origins of the library’s collection go back to the 1930s, mainly due to the interest of linguist Prof. Vladimír Skalička in Finnish, from which he translated several novels during the time when universities were closed during the Protectorate. This unique collection was developed with a significant contribution by a long-time lecturer, Dr. Hilkka Lindroos, who expanded it from the late 1960s until the beginning of the millennium, when the acquisition of foreign-language literature was not easy. 

Even today, most of the additions are donations, mainly thanks to the long-standing cooperation with Opetushallitus (OPH), a Finnish organisation that supports Finnish language teaching abroad, as well as with many Finnish universities. In the last decade, the fund has been enriched by the estates of Dr. Jan Peter Velkoborský (1934-2014), a prominent Finnish translator, and Lieko Zachovalová (1927-2017), a Finnish journalist who lived in Prague from 1948. 

TERVETULOA KIRJASTOON!

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