Important Names in Library History
Karl Joseph Napoleon Balling (Apr 21st, 1805 - March 17th, 1868)
Effective from May 31st, 1831, Karl Joseph Napoleon Balling was entrusted by F. J. Gerstner, director of the Estates Polytechnic Institute, with the care of the books and magazines owned by the institute but stored with individual professors or in their department blocks.
The former joined the institute on Nov 12th, 1824 as a chemistry adjunct. He became a tenure adjunct in April of 1826, a substitute teacher on Nov 1st, 1833 and a tenure professor of chemistry on June 16th, 1835. In the year 1865, he was elected rector of the institute. He remained responsible for the library until October, 1865. However, as early as in September of 1863, a tender was opened for the job position 'scriptor' in the library because Prof. Balling had been in charge of many other jobs. Although Josef Sitte worked there as a scribe in the period 1864 - 1865, Prof. Balling still continued bearing total responsibility for the library and it was only on Nov 30th, 1865 that he officially passed responsibility of it over to PhDr. Vojtěch Šafařík.
K. J. N. Balling drafted a list of materials he had found in the institute calling it Balling´s Index. On the wrapper of the document kept in the archives of CTU, there is a label with the title: 'Index der alfabetisch geordneten Namen der Verfasser der in der Bibliothek der könig. techn. Lehranstalt umfassender Werke, mit Bezeichnung der Numern und des Lehrfaches, zu welchem diese gehören. Verfasst im Oktober 1831 von dem damaligen Bibliotheks-Vorsteher Karl Balling, Adjunkt des Lehrfaches der Chemie und weiter fortgesetzt'.
Besides the Index, K. J. N. Balling also created the first and second books of loans where particular loans were listed in the period 1831-1849 (first book) and 1849 - April of 1865 (second book).
It was also thanks to Balling that inventory lists covering all the literature stored in the institute were drafted and continued to be maintained by his successors until the year 1913.
Josef Sitte
Josef Sitte was assigned to the scribe´s position by the National Board on Oct 29th, 1864 after having worked as a scribe with daily rate for the National Panel.
Probably he had worked in the library several months before being officially appointed there and he stayed until about the end of October, 1865. He then operated in the rector´s office and in 1869 he moved to the Czech Polytechnic Institute.
He ensured that a reading room for students was set up in one room of the former director´ s flat. The institute earmarked it and it was situated in close proximity to the library (after the reorganization in 1863, the institute was not presided over by a permanent director anymore but rather a rector elected by the teaching staff for one year terms). When furnishing the reading room, J.Sitte encouraged professors to select books from the collection that would constitute a freely accessible manual and to introduce a systematic order into the collection with book numbers composed of Roman numerals combined with capital and small letters.
PhDr. Vojtěch Šafařík (Oct 26th, 1829 - 1902)
PhDr. Vojtěch Šafařík was appointed to the scribe position by the National Board on Aug 9th, 1865 as the second place candidate who had applied for the position in a tender that had been opened in September, 1863 (the winning applicant, Dr. Schmidt, died before taking the office). Until then, he had been a chemistry professor at a business school in Vienna. He swore an oath before the rector on Sept 2nd, 1865 and started work in the library on Oct 30th, 1865. The handing over by Balling and the undertaking by Šafařík of all the inventory lists of the STK historical collection took place on Nov 30th, 1865, as witnessed by the two men´s own signatures. The latter left the library on Oct 17th, 1868 and continued work as a chemistry assistant in the Czech section of the institute that was bilingual at the time. From Aug 30th, 1869 onwards, he was a full professor of general and analytic chemistry in the newly established Czech Polytechnic Institute. In 1882, he became the first chemistry professor at the re-established Czech university in Prague.
When working for the library, he was assigned the task of providing an author card catalogue covering the entire collection i.e. to carry out the collection´s retrospective processing in line with this purpose (the library had about 7,000 volumes at that time). The catalogue, continuously updated until the 1920´s, has been kept in the STK as a historical document. Its author could not finish the task before leaving the library.
Josef Veselý (Apr 5th, 1840 - ?)
Josef Veselý was appointed to the provisional scribe position by the National Board on Nov 1st, 1868. It was when he worked as a physics assistant in the institute. On behalf of the undertaking party, he added his signature to the STK inventory lists on Oct 17th, 1868. However, the handing over party, Dr. Šafařík, did not sign.
His main contribution consisted in the edition of the first printed bookform catalogue of the library with the imprint date of 1870. In connection with this task, he probably had to complete the retrospective processing of the author card catalogue which had been started by Dr. Šafařík. No book numbers are given in the printed catalogue which places limits on its use.
As recognition for his work for the library, including the catalogue edition, he was awarded the honorary librarian title by the National Board under its Decree N°1392 from March 21st, 1871. On Oct 28th, 1873 J. Veselý announced his appointment as provisional director of the technical school in Černovice in Bukovina which meant he left the library. Later on he worked at a German technical school in Pilsen.
Vojtěch Valenta
In November of 1873, the provisional scribe position settled on Vojtěch Valenta. The final tenure for this scribe job was adjudged to him under the governor´s Notification N°63645 from Oct 26th, 1875. The date of the handing over by Veselý and the undertaking by Valenta was Aug 12th, 1874, as seen in the STK inventory lists.
Nothing is known as to his biographical data, education and possible activities outside the library and it is presumed he did not accomplish a university degree and did not match the quality of his predecessors Balling, Šafařík and Veselý.
His achievements included the processing and editing of printed catalogues in 1898 (state of the collection up to the year 1893) and an amendment in 1905 (state of the collection in the period 1894-1903). The catalogues were classified according to a systematic order created by the teaching staff (it seems to be an extended and amended version of the systematic order that was created in connection with the manual in the newly established reading room in 1865). They have registers and are still well applicable when accessing the historical collection. In the year 1903, V. Valenta was adjudged the custodian position (based on the teaching staff´ s recommendation in1896). After having served the library for 34 years, he left for retirement in the end of 1907.
Dr. Spiridon Wukadinovic (1870-1938)
After having won a tender opened in late 1907, Dr.Spiridon Wukadinovic became interim head of the library in the year1908. He performed the function until the first quarter of 1914 when he left for Krakow in order to teach at the university there. Following the year 1900, he served as a junior library clerk in the University Library in Prague, and during the period 1907-1914, he worked there as a scribe acting at the same time in TUL.
PhDr. Antonín Moucha (Jan 1st, 1882 – Nov 29th, 1945)
PhDr. Antonín Moucha, born in Prague, did his studies at Piarist grammar school and the German university in Prague where he focused on exact philosophy and physics. In the year 1907, at the age of 25 he joined TUL, apparently right after having finished his studies. As of Oct 1st, 1910, he was named articled clerk. Once Dr.Wukadinovic had left, in the first quarter of 1914, Dr.Moucha was entrusted with management of the library acting as assistant. He presented himself being German but he was reported to have mastered the Czech language in the same perfect manner as German.
After the outbreak of World War One, Dr.Moucha had to begin his military service (joining the imperial regiment of mountain solders in Riva am Gardasee) which left the library without an expert leadership. The German rectorate then contacted the governor´s office asking for Dr.Moucha to be exempt from military service duty. Dr.Moucha was allowed to return from the army and on Aug 8th, 1917 he opened the library for the readers.
After Oct 28th, 1918, Dr.Moucha was confirmed in his position as head of the library at a joint meeting of the Czech and German teaching staffs. He retained the function of TUL head even during the Nazi occupation although his democratic beliefs and attitudes made him undesirable with the administration of the German Reich. Even after closure of the Czech universities on Nov 19th, 1939, the library was maintained although with access reserved only for Germans.
On May 12th, 1945, the corroboration was granted to Dr.Moucha by the Police Directorate in Prague that "no failing has been found relating to any national aspect and he is thus left at liberty". The Ministry of Interior issued a confirmation on July 2nd, 1945 that Dr.Moucha was exempt from the measures taken against Germans and collaborators. The CTU teaching staff issued a declaration on May 18th, 1945 that "his relation to the Czech nation was always very warm and especially after the seizure of our scientific and technical libraries in the year 1939, he rendered as of yet unrecognized services to our nation to which he was bound more than to the nation of his origin, even in times of oppression".
However, Dr.Moucha was forced to leave his work at TUL by May 11th, 1945 due to a heart disease to which he succumbed several months later, on Nov 29th, 1945, in Prague, at the age of 63.
When reviewing Dr.Moucha´ s activities at TUL three major changes must be recalled as having had a substantial effect on the library´ s operation and services provided to readers. The first basic change consisted of introducing rational book storage according to formats and consecutive numbering (numerus currens). This replaced the previous book storage system according to subject fields. This change resulted in a more effective use of space which the library never had in abundance.
Another fundamental change brought the introduction of cataloguing with typewritten format A5 cards for the main staff catalogue and writing matrices; these were used for ormigo multiplication of the international format cards in readers´ author catalogues and subject-matter catalogues in the early twenties. The above enabled Dr.Moucha to create a scheme of catalogues that replaced the previous single, handwritten author catalogue. Relating to the systematic catalogue he invented a subject-field classification of 67 groups.
The biggest of these major changes was the adaptation of spaces in the eastern wing of Clementinum for the needs of TUL and the transfer of the library from its original confined location, which was very unsuitable, in the rear section of the former German technical school in Husova Street N°5, Prague 1, into this newly erected building in May 1935.
As memories of surviving contemporaries indicate, the whole concept of the space layout, the inside furnishing as well as any artistic decorations of interiors complemented by modern equipments applied in the new building – all that reflects the implementation of suggestions, ideas and the work efforts of Dr.Moucha. The adaptation project was drawn by Arch. Dr. Ing. Ladislav Machoň, with whom Dr.Moucha closely cooperated during the periods 1927-1932 in relation to the project, and again in 1933-1934 in relation to its execution. Almost every day he would come to construction yard and become fully engaged in supervising, giving instructions and improving down to details the real execution of the building and inside furnishing.
The adaptation of the part of Clementinum historical building, which necessitated taking down all the inside masonry in one half of the eastern section and incorporating a new reinforced concrete structure into the left cladding, meant an audacious technical solution because the building was on the list of historical monuments. The adapted part´s capacity in 1935, as compared to the situation in Husova Street, was three times the size of the collections the library owned in the year 1934. In addition, it was four times the back areas size proportionate to the then number of employees and two times the number of reading places in three study rooms.
