Operated by the ICL, the Czech Literary Bibliography is a basic research infrastructure for Czech literary studies and related fields of the humanities (philology, philosophy, history, art history, journalism, etc.). The aim of the project is to process, edit, and update a unique collection of bibliographic and other knowledge databases on a continuous basis, and make them available online. This involves mapping events in literature and literary scholarship in the Czech lands, as well as the circulation of Czech literature abroad, from the beginning of the national revival to the present, irrespective of language, format, or medium.
All CLB data can be accessed online by anyone at any time, free of charge, in open access mode.
Today, the CLB’s activities far exceed the basic processing of databases. They include a wide portfolio of activities, ranging from the development and adaptation of software tools for accessing and analyzing bibliographic data (the CLB subsequently distributes these tools as open source), to in-house bibliographic research (including the preparation of specialised bibliographies), to research in the digital humanities and newly established bibliographic data science. Activities also include other forms of scholarly communication, including the organisation of publishing projects, lectures, and workshops, as well as teaching and tutorials for students (especially in the university context), digitisation, and outreach programmes with user communities. Starting in 2016, the CLB was included in the Roadmap of Research Infrastructures of the Czech Republic.
