Library and study room
Until the 2nd half of 1940s the Postal Museum's library was an integral part of the Official Library of the Ministry of Post and Telegraph Offices established in 1919. The library was managed by the Postal Museum's director Václav Dragoun who also initiated the creation of its provisional catalogue. In 1933 the museum and its library moved to the building of St Gabriel's Monastery in Prague-Smíchov where the librarians completed the cataloguing works.
New acquisitions mainly consisted of contemporary official publications and already used or donated books and other literature on the history of post, transport, telecommunication services, law and philately. For a long time a large amount of these acquisitions awaited due registration. The situation greatly improved with the arrival of a new generation of museum workers in 1970s.
In 1988 the library moved to the new premises of the Postal Museum at Prague 1, Nové mlýny 2.
The present library collections consist of about 22 thousand items. The largest part are official postal aids, timetables and road, railway and air routing schedules. Collections of laws and other regulations since the late 18th century, telephone directories since 1883, etc. are among the other items. The highlights include traveller's guides, or itineraries, from the 17th and 18th centuries, postal lexicons, telephone, telegraph and radiocommunications manuals. Visitors can also check catalogues of Czech and foreign postage stamps or study complete sets of Monographs of Czechoslovak Postage Stamps, publications dedicated to major stamp designers, printing technologies and other philatelic literature.
The library offers a large collection of professional periodicals. The key periodical and the main source of information is the Bulletin of Postal Administration, published under different names since 1838. The other periodicals of similar nature include Zeitschrift für Post und Telegraphie, Československá pošta, telegraf a telefon, Naše pošta, Pošta PNS, Poštovní kurýr, etc. Periodicals dedicated to stamp design include the oldest Czech philatelic magazine Český filatelista, Tribuna filatelistů, Filatelista and Filatelistické listy as well as the newer Filatelie and Merkur revue. Specialized researchers can use several philatelic periodicals from Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia or Sweden.
Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday, 9.00-12.0am and 1.00-4.00pm.
You can only read the library items in the study room but not take them away.
Please return all borrowed materials at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time of closing.
Contact person:
Vladimír Halabrín
Tel.: + 420 222 312 006 (operator)
Attachments for download
Pricelist of services in Postal museum library (Only the Czech version) (rtf, 97 kB)