Jiří Trávníček: Reading Bohemia

AKROPOLIS THE INSTITUTE OF THE CZECH LITERATURE THE CZECH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, A PUBLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE PRAGUE 2015

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Jiří Trávníček Reading Bohemia Readership in the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21th century

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CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION — NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC Trávníček, Jiří, Reading Bohemia : Readership in the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21th century / Jiří Trávníček ; [translated

by Melvyn Clarke]. — 1st pub. — Prague : Akropolis : The Institute of the Czech Literature — The Czech Academy of Sciences, a public research Institute, 2015. — 96 pp. Translated from Czech. ISBN 978-80-7470-091-0 (Akropolis : soft cover). ISBN 978-80-88069-01-0 (The Institute of the Czech Literature CAS : soft cover) 379.823 * 028.1 * 028.01 * 026/027 * 655.4/.5 * 930.85:08/09 — reading — Czech Republic — 21st century — reader’s taste — Czech Republic — 21st century — libraries — Czech Republic — 21st century — book trade — Czech Republic — 21st century — books and reading — Czech Republic — 21st century — monographs 028 — Reading and use of other information media [12]

This publication originated with the support of the long-term conception development of the research institution 68378068 Jiří Trávníček, Reading Bohemia This book first published 2015 by The Czech Academy of Sciences, 2015, a public research institute (Na Florenci 3/1420, 110 00 Praha 1, http://www.ucl.cas.cz) in Filip Tomáš — Akropolis, Publishing House (5. května 1338/43, 140 00 Praha 4, www.akropolis.info) Printed: tiskárna Nakladatelství Karolinum, Pacovská 350, 140 21 Praha 4, Czech Republic Translated by Melvyn Clarke Peer-reviewed by Jasna Hloušková and Eva Klíčová All texts and images — all rights reserved! © Jiří Trávníček, 2015 © Translation Melvyn Clarke, 2015 © Illustrations Photo Josef Chuchma, 2015 © Graphic & Cover Design Studio Lacerta, 2015 (www.sazba.cz) © The Czech Academy of Sciences, 2015 © Filip Tomáš — Akropolis, 2015 ISBN 978-80-88069-01-0 (The Institute of the Czech Literature CAS) ISBN 978-80-7470-091-0 (Akropolis) ISBN 978-80-88069-03-4 (MOBI — The Institute of the Czech Literature CAS) ISBN 978-80-88069-02-7 (ePUB — The Institute of the Czech Literature CAS) ISBN 978-80-7470-094-1 (MOBI — Akropolis) ISBN 978-80-7470-095-8 (ePUB — Akropolis)

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Contents

Tables, graphs and photos / 6 Introduction / 7 11. Czech Republic — key demographic and socio­‑cultural information / 9 12. Reading and its status (research background) / 21 13. Executive summary / 27 14. Readers / 31 15. Digital reading and the internet / 37 16. Public libraries / 41 17. Book acquisition / 45 18. Book market / 51 19. Reading and other media / 55 10. Qualitative section / 61 11. Types and attitudes / 69 12. International context (comparisons) / 75 Conclusion / 85 Bibliography / 89

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Tables, graphs and photos Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 12.1 Table 12.2

Public libraries in the Czech Republic (1995–2013) Titles published (1995–2013) 2007, 2010 and 2013 — key facts Book hunger index (2007, 2010, 2013) Book and magazine reading — 18 countries USA (2007) and the Czech Republic (2007) — age distribution of book buyers

Graph 1.1 Graph 1.2 Graph 1.3 Graph 1.4 Graph 1.5 Graph 1.6 Graph 4.1 Graph 5.1 Graph 6.1 Graph 7.1 Graph 7.2 Graph 8.1 Graph 9.1 Graph 11.1 Graph 12.1 Graph 12.2 Graph 12.3

Age distritution in the Czech Republic (1995–2013) Religion in the Czech Republic GDP — purchasing power standard — regions (2013) Households online (2003–2013) Education in the Czech Republic (1995–2013) Publishing geography in the Czech Republic (2013) Distribution of readers (2007, 2010, 2013) What we are reading online (2010, 2013) Public library visitors past and present Book acquisition methods (2010, 2013) Book acquisition methods — figures (2010, 2013) Where we are buying books (2010, 2013) Media activities (2007, 2010, 2013) Types Book reading in the European Union (2007) Czech Republic (2010) and Poland (2010) — readers Germany (2008) and the Czech Republic (2010) — public library visits over the last twelve months Czech Republic and Great Britain (2005) — non­‑readers

Graph 12.4

All photos (by Josef Chuchma) are from the late 1980s and the early 1990s.

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Introduction

Reading is indispensable. We cannot do without it in this civilization of ours. To put it rather forcefully: we are condemned to read. We cannot escape, as it lies in wait for us wherever we go. And though we live in a society that has been entirely liter‑ ate for almost a hundred years, reading provides an important x­‑ray photograph of every culture, a key to gaining an insight into the world and ourselves. Hence it should come as no surprise that for quite some time now, surveys have been made of reading habits, systematically since the Second World War. But many people do find this odd. Why investigate a) something that is culturally indispensable and b) something we all do? But then reading has many facets and internal dislocations, and it is quite fascinating to compare it over time and in relation to other cultures.

Hence the following pages will also focus on research into reading, or to be specific, three surveys held in the Czech Republic in 2007, 2010 and 2013. This will involve statistical results, which we shall attempt to present, however, not as bare facts, but as facts in their context, backed up by established interpretations. We cannot get by without graphs and tables. Many parameters of reading culture will be un‑ der review, but the ways reading is involved in other contexts, e.g. other media, will also be examined. Although the book will centre on data, the data itself is not the main point. One way or another, we will be operating in a field marked out by statistics, so let us not expect any great subtleties. This will involve a profile of the entire Czech adult population at the beginning of the 21st century, so that large socio­‑demographic blocs will tend to be more in the foreground, e.g. the entire pop‑ ulation or age and gender groups, rather than the voices of individuals and their testimonies, with one small exception.

Are statistics up to this task? Certainly not on their own, but then again they can tell us something that other approaches cannot, as they can provide an insight into the frameworks, large blocs and profiles, i.e. the macrostructures. And sometimes, quite surprisingly, they can be methodologically quite flexible. In addition to the large blocs they can also reveal individual strategies and cultural patterns.

November 2014 (twenty-five years since the collapse of Communism in Czechoslovakia and Central Europe)

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Chapter 1

Czech Republic — key demographic and socio­‑ cultural information

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This chapter presents a summary of the Czech Republic’s key characteristics, from demographic to economic data and information on reading culture.

Czech Republic — three historical lands and fourteen modern regions

Liberec Region Ústí nad Labem Region Karlovy Vary Region

Plzeň Region

Cz ec

Hradec Králové Central Region Bohemian Region

Prague, the Capital City

Bohemia

Pardubice Region

Vysočina Region

South Bohemian Region

hS

ile

sia

Moravian-Silesian Region

Olomouc Region

Moravia South Moravian Region

Zlín Region

Source: http://www.oneworld365.org/travel/czech­‑republic

Demography With its ten and a half million inhabitants, the Czech Republic is one of the medium­ ‑sized European states (along with Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal and Austria, for example). After the great political and social changes at the turn of the eighties and nineties, it rapidly transformed into a parliamentary democracy and a market economy. It has been a NATO member since 1999 and a member of the European Union since 2004. In 1993 the original “state of the Czechs and the Slovaks” divided into two separate states — the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Recent surveys show that almost two­‑thirds (64%) of the population of the Czech Republic consider the changes at the turn of the eighties and the nineties to have been pos‑ itive, but an early 2014 survey found that only around one half (48%) are satisfied with the quality of this democracy.1 1 http://cvvm.soc.cas.cz/media/com_form2content/documents/c1/a7190/f3/pd140305.pdf [accessed 2014-11-15].

10

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Ever since the 17th century, exile has been a significant phenomenon in Czech his‑ tory. The largest Czech diaspora, based on several waves of emigration, is in the USA, where around 1.5 million inhabitants claim Czech roots, whereas in Europe it is Cro‑ atia (with approximately 10,000 inhabitants). Around 70% of the population live in urban areas. Modern history has witnessed two great waves of emigration — follow‑ ing the Communist putsch in 1948 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968. These waves have also had a great impact on book and publishing culture, as thanks to them sev‑ eral prominent centres of independent literature publication emerged (e.g. Toronto, Cologne, London and Zurich). These books were also smuggled into Czechoslovakia.

As for its ethnic composition, the Czech Republic is relatively homogeneous. At the last census in 2011, 63.7% of the population described their nationality as Czech (86% of those who claimed any nationality at all), 4.9% declared themselves to be of Moravian nationality, and 0.1% as Silesian; the remainder (26%) opted not to fill in any of the columns. The representation of the Moravian (and Silesian) nationality is largely due to the fact that there was a column for it in the questionnaire. Average life expectancy is 75 years for men and 81 for women. This has risen considerably over the last twenty years.

In 2013, 442,000 foreigners were living in the Czech Republic with permanent residence. Since the end of the 1980s this number has increased more than tenfold.

The largest groups among them are the Slovaks and the Ukrainians.

Age distribution and its development over the last twenty years are shown in the following graph.

Graph 1.1 Age distribution in the Czech population (1995–2013) 13.3%

13.9%

14.2%

14.6%

15.5%

17.4%

65+ years 15–64 years

68.4%

69.9%

71.1%

71.2%

70.1%

67.6%

18.3%

16.2%

14.6%

14.2%

14.4%

15.0%

1995

2000

2005

2007

2010

2013

0–14 years

Source: Czech Statistics Office

As in every other European country, the population of the Czech Republic is age‑ ing, as can be seen from the ratio of those aged 0–14 years to those aged over 65.

However, the Czech Republic has a better average within the European context as a whole. There are countries with a much worse demographic forecast (e.g. Italy).

11

Czech Republic — key demographic and socio­‑cultural information 45.2%

undeclared reading bohemia.indd 11

non-religious

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34.2%

18.3%

16.2%

14.6%

14.2%

14.4%

15.0%

1995

2000

2005

2007

2010

2013

Religion The following graph shows the religious make­‑up of the Czech Republic. The infor‑ mation is from the 2011 census.

Graph 1.2 Religion in the Czech Republic

45.2%

undeclared 34.2%

non-religious 10.3%

Roman Catholic

9.4%

other religion Protestant

0.8%

Source: Czech Statistics Office

Does this confirm the Czech Republic’s reputation as one of the most atheistic countries in the world? Yes and no. Self­‑declared believers make up a fifth, whereas those who state they are not believers only make up a third, and a mere 1,075 people declared themselves to be staunch atheists. Almost half of the population finds itself in the grey area between belief and unbelief.

The economy and living standards Life quality research,2 organized by the British Legatum Institute (2014) indi‑ cates that out of 145 world states, the Czech Republic is in the top quarter (in 29th position). Of the post­‑communist countries it is only surpassed by Slovenia (24th). Some of the other countries ranked include: 31st Poland, 35th Slovakia, 44th Latvia, 60th Bulgaria, 63rd Ukraine, 77th Serbia, 84th Albania, 95th Armenia. Top of the list were Norway in first place, Switzerland in second and New Zealand in third.3 2 According to the “prosperity index”, which includes the level of wealth, economic growth, education, healthcare standards and so forth.

3 See http://www.prosperity.com/#!/ranking [accessed 2014-11-12].

12

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The living standard is 80% of the EU average (GDP — purchasing power stan‑ dard per inhabitant). This percentage has not increased significantly at all in recent times — quite the reverse if anything (though in 2007 and 2009 it was actually 83%).

As for distribution, there is a great difference between individual areas, particu‑ larly between Prague and the rest of the country, as shown in the following graph.

Graph 1.3 GDP purchasing power standard — regions (2013) Prague

171

South-East

73

Central Bohemia

73

Moravia-Silesia

71

South-West

70

North-East

67

Central Moravia

66

North-West

63

Czech Republic (average)

80

Source: Czech Statistics Office, Eurostat

No other EU country shows such a significant difference between one region and the rest of the country. On the other hand, the Czech Republic is above the EU aver‑ age in its long­‑term employment rate.

As for domestic expenditure, its structure has fundamentally changed since the end of the 1980s, when one third went on foodstuffs and catering — now it is only one quarter. At that time two thirds of expenditure went on industrial goods, but now it is only one quarter. On the other hand, the proportion of services has risen, from one fifth to one third.

79% EURepublic (average) has not recently exceeded the EU average rate of inflation.

The Czech 73% 70% In 2008 inflation indeed 6.3% (with the EU average at 3.7%), but since that time Czechwas Republic it has not gone beyond the average of 2%. One living standard criterion is the na‑ tional poverty threshold as determined specifically for61% each country by the EU. This 55%the poverty threshold and the proportion of is the amount of income determining 48%

Czech Republic — key demographic and socio­‑cultural information 40%

13

35%

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19%

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Moravia-Silesia

71

South-West

70

North-East

67

the population below it. The 66 Czech Republic comes out of Central Moravia

this survey on top of the EU, as only one in ten of the population is below the poverty line, while for example North-West in Romania it is one in four.63

Czech Republic Digitization (average)

80

As for mobile phone ownership the Czech Republic comes out above average. In 2012, 14.5 million SIM­‑cards were recorded in active use by 96% of the population.

Moreover, annual domestic expenditure is higher in the Czech Republic (3.0%) than the EU average (2.7%). Over the last seven years domestic internet access has clearly caught up with the EU average. See graph below.

Graph 1.4 Households online (2003–2013) 79%

EU (average)

73%

70%

Czech Republic

61% 55% 48% 40% 35%

15%

2003

19%

2005

2007

2010

2013

Source: Eurostat

Age is a key differentiating factor in internet usage. While in the 15–24 age cohort 97% of the population use the internet, in the 65+ cohort only 18% do so. The same figures also apply to computer usage. In contrast, the difference between males and females, which over the long term has involved more of the former, is gradually decreasing.

Education This is a key parameter with regard to attitudes towards reading. As concerns the proportion of GDP spent on education, the Czech Republic (with around 4.5%) co‑ 14

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Chapter 1

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Readers

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35

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36

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Chapter 4

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Chapter 5

Digital reading and the internet

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16%

2013

40%

20%

24%

This chapter focuses on several phenomena involving reading and the digital sphere.

Data10 Graph 5.1 What we are reading online (2010, 2013)10 53% 54% 2010 2013 23% 16% 9%

10% 8% 1%

news, online newspapers and magazines

online commentaries, forums notes, blogs and discussions

1%

fiction

9%

13% 5%

others

non of above preferred Base: internauts

The internet has shown itself to be a place to read short, service­‑related texts, whereas the number of those who read fiction on it is quite negligible. There has been a considerable increase in the number of browsers, i.e. those for whom the internet provides an opportunity for free surfing.

Other notable data: between 2010 and 2013 there was a surprising increase in the number of those who do not agree that only e­‑books should exist in the future.

In 2010, 66% of the population did not agree and three years later 77%. Around one in six did not have an opinion on this issue or had not considered it.

The devices on which we read books, magazines and newspapers are (in order): 1. PC/notebook, smartphone, tablet and reader, with only 1% of the population reg‑ ularly reading these texts on a reader.

Socio­‑demographic features There was no substantial change in socio­‑demographic features between 2010 and 2013. The most significant shift involves a balancing out of the differences between men and women. Otherwise it is the case that internet news and news‑ 10 Not monitored in 2007.

38

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paper publications are least followed by the youngest and people with the lowest education; internet forums and discussions attract the youngest most of all, while comments sections and blogs are most followed by those with the lowest educa‑ tion. The higher the education, the lower the number of those with no preference.

This description (“do not prefer any of the above”) is most represented by the elderly population.

As for the frequency with which the Czech population uses the internet, be‑ tween 2010 and 2013 the number of non­‑users dropped from one third to one fifth, while the number of those who use the internet every day rose from 43% to 55%. The most important socio­‑demographic information is that the gender gap has closed significantly (men do not predominate so much). Age remains the key variable: the younger people are, the more likely they are to use the internet. Another important variable is education (in favour of the most educated). On the other hand a very small role is played by the size of the conurbation here in the Czech Republic.

Explanation Quite expectedly, the internet has proved to be an environment where we pri‑ marily read short, service­‑related texts. It also shows that digital reading is not to the detriment of traditional reading. The fact that PCs/notebooks predominated over other devices is not surprising, but what might appear rather surprising is that the smartphone came in second. Only one percent of the population reads regularly on a reader, while almost one in five read on a PC/notebook. Even here the more we read, the more we use individual devices. Unexpectedly, there was an increase in the number of those who do not agree with the idea that in future only e­‑texts will be read. It seems we are not entirely willing to accede to the idea expressed in the title of the book by Jeff Gomez — “print is dead”. The “prestigious inconvenience” of the printed book is not making way for e­‑book convenience;11 at least not in our thoughts and minds. By all indications we are not about to see the same kind of thing as the bulb replacing the candle or the car taking the place of the horse and carriage, i.e. the lower and less perfect is replaced by the higher and more perfect.

11 Gomez, Jeff. Print is Dead. Books In Our Digital Age, New York: Palgrave MacMilan, 2008, p. 168.

Digital reading and the internet

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84

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Chapter 12

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Conclusions

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Last 25–30 years What kind of readers are to be found in the Czech population? They do read, al‑ though their willingness to obtain books (see the book hunger index — p. 29) is declining, as the statistics confirm. Over the last 25–30 years this has very much been the case, although this has been a development with several breaks. As the new generation has grown up, the attitude of the Czech population towards books and the book market has altered several times. At the end of the 1980s it was based on the idea that “we do read, even though there’s a lack of books”. The most interesting ones disappeared from the counters within two hours on legendary Book Thursdays, while those of us who had access read samizdat or exile literature overnight, because the next day we had to pass it on to somebody else. Readers were very willing to go out of their way for books and often to do extraordinary things for them. Hence the book market did not have to handle anything — there was no need for advertising, let alone marketing, and although the range on of‑ fer even then was decided by preliminary research into demand (at publishers and booksellers), the decision on what would be published was made elsewhere; moreover, it was quietly presumed in a way that state support was unlimited. — After 1989 and more or less the entire nineties we see a different model: “we read, because there are enough books”. Titles that had previously been banned were now hastily churned out in astronomical print runs, sometimes in the order of hundreds of thousands, particularly in the first few years. We saw a kind of book reading carnival, which many publishers believed would never end. They paid for this later on with bankruptcy and warehouses bulging with books that could never be sold. Others were brought down (often to rock bottom) by bankrupt distribution companies. The more sensible among them slowly began to behave more rationally and started to consider medium­‑term book planning without relying on a single distribution company. — Sometime around the beginning of the new century, when it was clear that carnival time would not be coming back soon, the Czechs accepted the necessity of adapting to a different model, i.e. “we read even though there are too many books”. This was a time when they found out for sure that the book has to chase the reader. Supply begins to sap demand, and the “shelf life” of books continually decreases as the supply of titles increases. At the same time the connection in terms of sales and readers between the book and time is seriously weakened, as Pavel Janoušek tellingly noted: “the glut [of books] has relieved him [the reader] of the obligation to buy anything and read: because what can be read at any time need never be read at all”.26 Hence booksellers say that purchasers 22

26 Janoušek, Pavel, “Prchavá všednost české prózy aneb Hledání svatého grálu” (The ephemeral banality of Czech prose or Seeking the holy grail), Respekt 25 (2014), No. 27–28, p. 110.

86 Conclusions

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increasingly find themselves in a consumption paradox loop: if there were fewer books at the counter, more of them would be bought.27 The purchaser thus tests out the possibilities opened up by this model, probing the limits and the hidden op‑ portunities for coming to terms with cold socio­‑economic rationality and learning to coexist with it.

23

Facit How does Czech reading culture look as a whole?

As… … a reading culture that generates few non­‑readers, but not too many above­‑average readers either (whose number is falling in any case), and yet with a fairly large number of readers who are high above the average (i.e. “passionate” readers); … a reading culture dominated by a very small urbanization barrier; conurbation size does not play a prominent role in the Czechs’ attitude towards reading; … a reading culture with a very high gender barrier — and a large gap between women and men (in favour of women); … a reading culture without an age barrier, but in which reading falls significantly in middle age; … a reading culture in which an age barrier does appear for digital reading (in favour of the youngest) and for all activities associated with the internet; … a reading culture in which the number of people who read books every day is slowly decreasing, but as a culture with an invariable average number of minutes spent every day on reading (books); … a reading culture in which reading and digitality do not compete: strong readers are also strong internauts; … a reading culture with greatly expanding hosehold libraries; 27 See e.g. Heger, Juraj. „Knihy levnější být nemůžou” (Books cannot be any cheaper), ed. Petra Tesařová, Lidové noviny 22. 3. 2011, p. 14.

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… a reading culture that retains a fairly positive attitude towards public libraries, although we see a declining number of people who go there, but without a sub‑ stantial reduction in the number of visits; … a reading culture in which the custom of seeing books as gifts is very widespread; … a reading culture which still inclines more towards a conservative attitude to the book market (citizens of the Czech Republic primarily buy books at traditional bookshops); … a reading culture in which the family plays the most important role in the forma‑ tion of the socio­‑cultural readership pattern; all other environments play a sec‑ ondary role; women are more dependent than men on the family environment; men find their way to books on their own to a much greater extent; … a reading culture in which scissors open up between reading and acquisition; we are witnessing a kind of excess of supply over demand and the options available to Czech readership; … a reading culture that is drowning in the excessive supply on the book market; … a reading culture in which the primary barrier to those who are not buying books is their price.

88 Conclusions

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The detailed outcomes of all three readership surveys and their socio-cultural ­interpretations are contained in these three books (see below). Reading Bohemia is an abridged English version.

Jiří Trávníček Čteme?

Obyvatelé České republiky a jejich vztah ke knihám (2007)

druhého reprezentativního výzkumu čtenářů a čtení první proběhl v roce 2007 a jeho výsledky, včetně staveny v knize Čteme? Obyvatelé České republiky 2007). Není pouhým souhrnem statistických údajů čteme, kolik knih kupujeme, jak často chodíme jčastěji obstaráváme informace o knihách, co má ejvětší vliv, jaké časopisy čteme atd. Data ukazují, ozloženo, tj. kdo jsou jeho tahouni a kdo ho naopak cházejí bariéry a kde má česká čtenářská kultura je zde čtení nahlíženo v kontextu jiných aktivit — h i volnočasových. Specifickým tématem druhého ie a čtení v digitálním prostředí. Součástí knihy jsou om, kdy, kde a z jakého důvodu se zrodila beletrie, mění čtení pod tlakem nových technologií. Nechybí skou kulturou v jiných zemích. Není zřejmě širší opy než čtení. Čtení toho o nás ví hodně, takže není něm.

60) je literární vědec, literární kritik, vysokoškolský pro českou literaturu AV ČR a částečně také na FF UK, U. Zabývá se moderní českou a středoevropskou í a hermeneutikou, čtenářskou kulturou, je činný rany, I. Blatného, I. Jelínka, Slovník teorie literatury ů ke střední Evropě V kleštích dějin ad.). Je autorem í možnosti (1996), Na tvrdém loži z psího vína (1998, m), Příběh je mrtev? Schizmata a dilemata moderní mi něco... Jak si děti osvojují příběhy (2007), Čteme? iky a jejich vztah ke knize (2008), též spoluautor orů (s A. Goldflamem a D. Šlosarem). Jeho texty lharsku, Maďarsku, Německu, Polsku, Rakousku, elké Británii aj. Ženatý, otec dvou dcer.

Jiří Trávníček ČTENÁŘI A INTERNAUTI

(Do We Read? Citizens of the Czech Republic and their Attitude to Book /2007/) Brno — Praha: Host — Národní knihovna ČR, 2008.

208 pp. ISBN 978-80-7294-270-1

ČTENÁŘI A INTERNAUTI Jiří Trávníček Obyvatelé České republiky a jejich vztah ke čtení (2010)

Jiří Trávníček Čtenáři a internauti Obyvatelé České republiky a jejich vztah ke čtení (2010) (Readers and Internauts. Citizens of the Czech Republic and their Attitude to Reading /2010/) Brno — Praha : Host — Národní knihovna ČR, 2011.

192 pp. 192 pp. ISBN 978-80-7294-515-3

H ST

60) je literární vědec, literární kritik, vysokoškolský učitel. českou literaturu AV ČR, externě učí na FF MU. Zabývá tředoevropskou literaturou, interpretací a hermeneutikou, e činný i jako editor (dílo J. Zábrany, I. Blatného, I. Jelínka, y a kultury, antologie textů ke kultuře a geopolitice střední ad.). Je autorem publikací Poezie poslední možnosti (1996), vína (1998, společně se Z. Kožmínem), Příběh je mrtev? moderní prózy (2003), Vyprávěj mi něco… Jak si děti osvojují ? Obyvatelé České republiky a jejich vztah ke knize (2008), byvatelé České republiky a jejich vztah ke čtení (2011), Knihy ho trhu v českých zemích (2014, spolu se Z. Šimečkem); též ch rozhovorů (s A. Goldflamem a D. Šlosarem). V roce 2013 kých životopisů lidí zabývajících se profesně knihami (Knihy y byly publikovány v Bulharsku, Maďarsku, Německu, Polvensku, v USA, Velké Británii aj. Ženatý, otec dvou dcer.

Jiří Trávníček PŘEKNÍŽKOVÁNO

8.9.2011 12:31:29

ultura? Silná, nebo slabá? Setrvalá, nebo upadající? Jsou tení oprávněné, nebo jde jen o pohodlný kulturní katasbývá těmito i dalšími otázkami, přičemž vychází z výsledo výzkumu čtenářů a čtení v České republice, který orgaNárodní knihovna spolu s Ústavem pro českou literaturu tem výzkumu je knižní trh — kolik knih kupujeme, kolik , podle čeho si je vybíráme, proč je nekupujeme, které inznáme. V knize dochází i na čtení, čtení digitální, veřejné né knihy a mnohé další. Čtení toho na nás ví hodně; víc,

PŘEKNÍŽKOVÁNO Co čteme a kupujeme Jiří Trávníček (2013)

Jiří Trávníček Překnížkováno Co čteme a kupujeme (2013)

(Too Many Books. What Do We Read and Buy /2013/) Brno — Praha : Host — Národní knihovna ČR, 2014.

190 pp. ISBN 978-80-7491-256-6

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8.12.2014 9:47:43

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THE INSTITUTE OF THE CZECH LITERATURE — the czech academy of sciences The Institute of the Czech Literature (established 1947) is one of the 54 autonomous research institutions of The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), the most important centre of leading research in the Czech Republic. The ICL is the only non­‑university institution in the Czech Republic working in basic research in literary studies and a central institution in the research of literature and literary culture in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia in the international context.

Researchers at the ICL focus on the history and contemporary characteristics of literature written in the Czech language and literature historically written in the Czech lands in other languages (in particular Latin and German), its relationship with literatures of other languages and regions as well as the literary and cultural theory and the literary life of Czech exile and emigration diasporas.

The ICL publishes the internationally recognized journal Česká literatura [Czech Literature], which has a tradition of more than sixty years. It regularly organises the World Congress of Czech Literary Studies and offers internships to research fellows from abroad. More than half of ICL researchers give lectures at universities and the ICL itself is (in collaboration with selected universities) supervising PhD. students, with a total of twenty postgraduates working together with forty researchers. Roughly three quarters of the ICL’s activities are funded through CAS; one quarter comes from national and international grants.

Besides theoretical and historical research, the ICL serves as an information and bibliographic base for research into the history of literature and culture in the Czech context.

It is responsible for the national infrastructure of the Czech Literary Bibliography, a full­‑text database of Czech literature called the Czech Electronic Library and a set of digital archives or libraries, all of them available on the internet (with a total of one million visits per year). The ICL produces reference books such as syntheses of specific periods of literary history (the most recent being the four­‑volume history of Czech literature under communism, 1945–1989, or the three­‑volume history of Czechoslovak comics in the 20th century) or dictionaries focusing on historical topics in Czech culture from its very beginnings in the 9th century to the present day (5,500 dictionary entries published in books or on the internet).

The ICL is the national centre of readership research and is part of international networks with the same focus; it makes significant contributions to the study of popular culture in Central Europe, as well as to international transfer of theoretical thought. The ICL is working on improving access to resources focusing on the history of the Prague School of structuralism in literary criticism and through various compendia provides information on the current state of theoretical discussion around the world to Czech students and the general public. In its efforts to publish critical editions of literary works, the ICL has specialised in the utilisation of digital technology since the 1990s.

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Headquarters, library, Prague branch: Na Florenci 3/1420 110 00 Praha 1 Brno branch: Květná 8, 603 00 Brno Deputy Director for international co-operation: Mag. Dr. Michael Wögerbauer woegerbauer@ucl.cas.cz Readership studies: Prof. PhDr. Jiří Trávníček, M. A. travnicek@ucl.cas.cz

www.ucl.cas.cz/en literature@ucl.cas.cz

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