The National Library of Technology (NTK) is the largest and oldest library of science and technology literature in the Czech Republic. It is both a public STEM library and an academic library for the UCT Prague and the IOCB Prague, located in the geographical heart of Prague’s Dejvice campus. Its primary function is to serve hundreds of students, teachers, and researchers every day, both with its extensive collection of information resources and its comfortable and modern facilities for study and work. NTK's ambition is to be a top information center, offering scientific and technical information as well as academic and business services – and supporting research, development, education, and innovation at national and international levels.
NTK’s motto: “The library is a service.”
Top NTK services for UCT students and staff:
- Free registration
- Automatic extension of registration granted for the duration of your affiliation
- NTK information and educational materials
- Team study rooms plus individual carrels (dependent on registration)
- And more…
Questions about NTK services at:
· Email: info@techlib.cz
· Phone: 232 002 535 (during patron services hours)
Tip! Follow the NTK on social media and read the NTK’s blog to be the first to hear about new services and materials.
Registration of UCT patrons
Some NTK services are available to everyone. However, registration brings significant benefits.
Registration for UCT students and staff is free, and easy to complete during patron services hours. To speed up the process, you can fill out a pre-registration form in advance.
The registration is extended automatically for the duration of your affiliation with the university.
Places to study and work in the NTK building
NTK is open at night, on weekends, and during public holidays.
In the NTK building, you will find:
- More than 1,300 free study places
- Quiet Zones on Floors 3 and 6, a Quiet Study Room (Floor 3), and the Periodicals Reading Room (Floor 3)
- Team Study Rooms and Individual Carrels
- the After Hours Study Room, open whenever the library itself is closed
- Rare Books & Special Collections Reading Room
Tip! During exam periods, the NTK has extended opening hours and you can check the current number of people in the building on the NTK homepage.
NTK information resources and the chemTK: the joint UCT, IOCB and NTK Library of Chemistry
Collections are available in printed form on the shelves, in stock (available on request), or electronically. NTK offers a number of options for locating a specific resource as well as browsing the Open Stacks Guide by subject area.
NTK offers access to:
- Print and electronic information resources (e-books, e-journals, e-resources) with a focus on STEM fields
- Resources of the specialized chemistry library of chemTK (a joint library of NTK, UCT Prague and IOCB AV ČR; availability of e-resources depends on affiliation)
- Printed journals in the Periodicals Reading Room (the last two volumes)
- The Czech Standards and Norms (CSN) database online as well as the Kramerius digital library (Periodicals Reading Room)
- Electronic resources subscribed by the IOCB (available on public computers in the building but only with NTK registration)
Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services for UCT-affiliated users: you can obtain publications from within the Czech Republic as well as abroad that are not available in the NTK collections.
Tip! If you don’t know which specialized resources to use, get inspired by the Subject Guides: compilations of specialized information for various fields from Architecture to Vadose Zone Hydrology.
NTK information and instructional materials
NTK tutorials – a wide range of information guides and instructional materials designed for students and researchers at different stages of study and/or research and work.
Searching:
- Find out the difference in Searching NTK Resources and Google Scholar
- Explore the possibilities and limits of literature search using AI tools
- Be inspired by the search guides for each type of resource (Where to find)
- Organize your search and used sources with citation management tools
Writing and publishing:
- Get inspired by tips and advice on how to get started; learn academic writing and publishing skills
- Learn how to cite properly
- Get to know the tools to support writing
- Use LaTeX tutorials and templates
- STEMskiller – definitions, annotations, and links to high-quality open educational resources
- Learn how to avoid predatory journals
- Take care of your author identifiers and profiles and learn how to work with ORCID iD
- Learn to manage research data and communicate with data stewards using a shared language.
NTK webinars, workshops, and consultations
The NTK offers courses, workshops, and webinars in both Czech and English aimed primarily at developing the skills needed to search, evaluate, and use information effectively, but also at creating and presenting the right outputs from seminar papers and final theses to scientific articles and academic publications.
Webinars
- Relevant materials are freely available on NTK Moodle
- Webinar recordings and other supplementary materials are posted as playlists on the NTK YouTube channel (Kick Start Your Research Career with NTK: Webinars for Early Career Researchers, NTK Academic Writing Q&A Series)
Consultations: one-to-one meetings to address specific questions, such as how to start a thesis, how to search and cite, how to use specific online tools and resources, or how to publish a first article. Consultations are free, last about an hour, and you just need to fill out a consultation form to request one (NTK registration is not required).
Bibliometric services for researchers:
· Consultations on how to work with citation databases (Web of Science, Scopus), advice on creating a publication overview, etc.
· Comprehensive preparation of a publication and citation survey (charged at 200 CZK/hour)
· Information retrieval services on topics within the NTK’s scope of interest (charged at 200 CZK/hour). This service is not available to students with the exception of doctoral candidates.
Tip! We are happy to prepare “tailor-made” workshops for students or doctoral candidates on topics such as the effective use of discipline-specific databases, working with specific citation tools and styles, and similar. We encourage university instructors to contact us (info@techlib.cz) with requests regarding such workshops.