The museum library primarily stores information pertaining to the main activities of the museum. Its collection is therefore specialised, focusing on the history and present of the glass and jewellery industry, art glass and jewellery. Materials concerning the history of the region also form an important part of the collection.
The library comprises two parts, a collection and a specialised (reference) part.
The collection library is registered according to the Museum Act (122/2000 Coll.) and is therefore part of the museum’s collections as the BOOKS sub-collection. It consists of 151 items. It includes books, mostly on general historical, art historical, glass and jewellery topics. The collection comprises old prints, encyclopaedias and lexicons from the collections of the original Municipal Museum in Jablonec nad Nisou (which was active 1904-1945), the estate of historian Karel R. Fischer and the library of the Chamber of Commerce and Trade in Liberec. The oldest items date back to the 17th century, the majority of them from the 19th century.
The library also includes a sub-collection of PHOTOGRAPHY (according to the central collections register, the sub-collection “Photographs, films, video recordings and other media”) with a total of 2484 items, comprising individual portrait photographs, complete albums of families (often of prominent factory owners), photographs of events - international exhibitions, foreign visits at exhibition openings, symposia or conferences; individual items from glass and jewellery exhibitions (goblets, flasks, vases, jewellery); shooting targets, seals of deeds, signatures, and individual documents; there are also architectural items - churches, rectories, chapels, cemeteries, monuments, town halls and schools; glass products, both corporate and those of students of art glass schools; glass and jewellery production technology, jewellery tools and equipment; small domestic items; glassworks (interior, exterior); general views of the town, as well as the streets themselves, postcards.
The reference library is governed by the Library Act (257/2001 Coll.) and holds a total of 21,120 items in inventory as of 2021. The collection consists of books (specialist literature, catalogues, etc.) and periodicals. There are 8 subscription magazine titles in print form and The Bead Forum magazine in electronic form.
The process of creating an electronic catalogue continues, with corrections and modifications of cataloguing records, and the systematic import of records into the Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic (maintained by the National Library).
The library is open to the public, but books and other documents are only available for study in the study room. Visits must be booked in advance by calling +420 778 740 770 or by e-mail at tereza.bednarova@msb-jablonec.cz. Visitors are required to fill in a research sheet and pay the appropriate fees for library services. The fee for one-time use of the collection is 50 CZK, professional researchers (universities, high schools, museums, galleries), students and pensioners free of charge. There is also a charge for photocopying and print-outs.
