Libraries witness changes in the Czech Republic

By Robert Herrick

你现在会去图书馆借阅图书么？或者你所在的地方还有图书馆存在么？在这个电子图书盛行、网络发达的年代，到图书馆借书好像已经过时了，但仍有一个国家仍然顽强地坚持这种习惯，尽管它的图书馆也减少了一部分，而且剩下的图书馆有时也要作其他用途来维持运营。

In the age of Amazon and the Internet,the idea of going to a public library to borrow a book may seem oldfashioned in many parts of the world,but one country,at least,is hugging it stubbornly:the Czech Republic.

There are libraries everywhere you look in the country—it has the densest library network in the world.There are more libraries than grammar schools.In fact,there is one library for every 1,971 Czech citizens,four times as many,relative to population,as the average European country,and 10 times as many as the United States,which has one for every 19,583 people.

Why are there so many libraries in Czech.Well,for decades they were mandatory—every community,from a big city down to a tiny village,was required by law to have one.

The law was enacted in 1919,soon after Czechoslovakia came to light as an independent country.The idea was to promote universal literacy and education after the country was free of the German-speaking Austro-Hungarian Empire.And it worked.Czechs developed a strong reading habit.Even today,those who visit libraries buy more books than others:11 a year on average.

The library law survived the German occupation,the communist era and even the breakup with Slovakia in the early 1990s.What it couldn't survive,in the end,was budgetary pressure.To save money,the requirement was dropped in 2001,when there were about 6,019 libraries in the country;since then,about 11 percent have closed.

Rather than just linger on,though,the surviving Czech libraries are doing what they can to stay alive and relevant.They serve as voting places for elections and as local meeting places.They organize reading clubs and art exhibits and offer computer literacy courses,and they welcome droves of schoolchildren and retirees during the day.

But mostly,they do what 92 percent of Czechs still want them to go on doing,according to the Gates Foundation survey—they lend books.

在这个“亚马逊”与网络当道的时代，进公共图书馆借书在世界上许多地方似乎过时了。然而至少还有一个国家仍顽强地保持这项习惯，那就是捷克共和国。

放眼望去，捷克到处是图书馆：该国有全世界密度最高的图书馆网，其数量甚至多过文法学校。事实上，在捷克每1971人中就有一座图书馆，这是欧洲国家平均水平的4倍，美国的10倍（美国每19583人才拥有一座图书馆）。

为什么捷克有这么多图书馆？其实几十年来，建造图书馆一直曾是强制规定——依照法律，捷克的每一个社区，从大城市到小村庄，都要有一座图书馆。

该法案是1919年颁布的，当时捷克斯洛伐克刚独立不久，意欲在脱离说德语的奥匈帝国统治后，提高全民识字率、普及教育。这一做法的确卓有成效。捷克人养成了很强的阅读习惯。即便在今天，逛图书馆的人买的书也比其他人更多，一年下来平均会买11本书。

这项图书馆法案挺过了 “二战”德国占领期、共产主义时期，甚至当捷克在上世纪90年代初期与斯洛伐克分家时仍照行不误。但是它最终挺不住的是预算压力。该法案在2001年为节省开支而废止了，当时捷克全国上下有6019座图书馆。此后，有大约11%的图书馆遭合并或关闭。

然而，现存的捷克图书馆并不甘于仅仅能够留存，它们尽可能地保持活跃，加强与民众生活的联系。图书馆是选举时的投票所，是当地居民的集会场地。馆方也会组织阅读俱乐部和艺术展览、提供计算机教学课程，并且在日间接待成群造访的学童与退休人士。

但大多数情况下，根据盖茨基金会调查显示：92%的捷克人仍然希望他们继续服务下去——借书给大家看。