First aid for reading and studying older Czech publications

Do you need a Czech book for your studies or teaching that is no longer available for purchase, is on a long-term loan, or is perhaps available in only a single copy? The Out-of-Commerce Works service, known by its Czech abbreviation DNNT, may be the solution.

The Out-of-Commerce Works service, part of the Czech Digital Library, provides access to digitized books, journals, and newspapers published in the Czech Republic that are no longer available through standard distribution channels. This also includes revised or electronic editions.

The service includes documents that are still protected by copyright but have been entered in the List of Out-of-Commerce Works. Inclusion in this list makes it possible for DNNT to provide access to digital copies of these texts.

Did you know? … DNNT also makes available copyright-protected works for which 70 years have not yet passed since the author’s death, as well as various books and journals that are otherwise difficult to obtain. For periodicals, this usually means issues at least 10 years old; for books, editions that are 20 or more years old. At present, full texts of approximately 200,000 digitized books and journals are available through DNNT.

Documents are digitized by various institutions and stored in their digital libraries, such as the National Digital Library (NDL), the Digital Library of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and university and research digital libraries, including the CU Digital Library Kramerius.

A legal and convenient route to required reading 

Access through DNNT is often the first practical solution for older Czech literature that is no longer normally available.

Digitized documents made available through DNNT often represent the only legal way to access otherwise unavailable Czech literature. These texts are processed in high quality and include an OCR layer that enables full-text searching.

A large part of this older, currently unavailable literature has already been digitized and is available after login. Documents, and even specific pages, can also be easily shared with students by adding persistent links to Moodle or SIS.

Did you know? … If a required title from the university library collection has not yet been digitized and made available through DNNT, it is possible to request digitization. You can even submit that request yourself!

Before a title can be made available through DNNT, first check its status in theList of Out-of-Commerce Works. For DNNT access, the book must be listed with the status “Included” and assigned the “Online Access Licence”.

If the title is not listed in DNNT but meets the DNNT criteria, it must first go through the inclusion process. For more information about digitization at Charles University, visit the Charles University Digitization Centre website or contact your faculty library.

Not every book can be made available through DNNT. The database primarily includes older Czech titles that are no longer generally obtainable and meet the conditions for inclusion. Even so, DNNT is always worth trying. Many books whose availability you might not expect are already available there in full digital form.

Frequently asked questions

How do I suggest a book for digitization, and how long will it take?

You can submit a digitization request through the ServiceDesk or contact your faculty library.

Did you know? … You can check whether a title can be digitized immediately. Search the List of Out-of-Commerce Works. If you find the book with the status “Included” and the assigned “License for online access”, work on digitizing it and making it accessible can begin. The digitization time depends on the workload of the relevant department and on the complexity of the digitization.

If the title is not included in the DNNT list, you should expect at least 6 additional months. Although the process is longer, the result is a legally accessible, high-quality text with full-text search that will serve not only one course, but also future cohorts and students. The library will also handle all digitization for you, and the document will not burden Moodle or course storage.

Details of the inclusion process can be found here.

Not sure what to do? Did you not find what you were looking for? Contact the helpdesk at admin-alma@cuni.cz! We will be happy to help.

Literature that is (finally) within reach

DNNT can make studying significantly easier, especially if you are looking for a textbook or recommended reading that is no longer available for sale, need a book that is on a long-term loan, or are working with older but still relevant Czech scholarly literature

When you are looking for a book, the easiest place to start is UKAŽ, Charles University’s central discovery service. Through UKAŽ, you can access not only titles included in DNNT, but also other digital texts.

UKAŽ: everything in one place  UKAŽ, Charles University’s central discovery service, allows you to search for printed, digitized, and electronic resources available at Charles University all at the same time. When you are looking for study materials or recommended reading, UKAŽ may direct you to an online version that you can read after logging in with your university CAS credentials.

Frequently asked questions

Can I download or print the entire book? Another book had the icons, but here they have disappeared.

Titles with a DNNT licence or DNNT availability cannot be downloaded as PDFs or printed. They are intended for online reading only. Download and print icons appear in digital libraries only for books with  “Public” availability, marked with an eye icon. Only these books can be downloaded or printed.

Not sure what to do? Did you not find what you were looking for? Contact the helpdesk at admin-alma@cuni.cz! We will be happy to help.