A substantial part of the contemporary geological library consists of the fund of the former Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the German University of 1877 – 1944 and the fund of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Charles University, created after its establishment in 1920. In 1926, Professor Radim Kettner, who had an extensive library, became Head of the Institute. The part containing reprints and minor publications was immediately incorporated into the fund of the Faculty library and his entire collection of monographs also became the property of the library after his death. The fund of the Institute of Mineralogy of the Czech University, created since 1883, forms the basis for the mineralogy library. The two libraries were formally combined under a single administration after 1945.

 

After 1952, further foreign additions led to extensive international exchange of journals with other professional universities and museum libraries abroad. The library sent the journal Acta Universitatis Carolinae - Geologica to almost 400 addresses abroad and in the former CSSR. (There are now about 200 exchange partners.) In the subsequent period, the library continued to grow; because of a lack of its own space and the establishment of new departments, additional individual libraries were formed in the separate departments and institutes (e.g. mineralogy, petrology, hydrogeology, engineering geology and applied geophysics), however, always under a single administration in the library of the geology section. In 1996 – 1997, the library obtained new storage space with sliding shelves and expanded its depositary. A separate study room

and journal reading room were established in 1998.  The individual collections were centralized starting at the beginning in 2000; the funds at the departments were subject to content analysis and a large part of the funds was discarded.The remaining funds were gradually moved.

In 2000, electromagnetic protection of the fund was installed. Simultaneously, the individual rooms of the library wre connected with the study room, so that space was freed for free choice. The library began to retro-catalogue its funds in the Aleph library system in 1998. Bibliographic records of the “live” fund have mostly been completed and thus the library has offered automated lending since the 2005/2006 school year.