1) Contact
clb@ucl.cas.cz

2) Title of dataset
Czech Literature in Translation 

3) Dataset description
The database contains records of book translations of Czech literature into all languages. Primarily, it includes texts originally written in Czech and works written in a foreign language if the author's bibliography includes at least one book originally written in Czech. In terms of genre and subject matter, it main focuses on fiction; yet, it also partially covers non-fiction.

Timeframe: 1538–2024

Excerption range: book translations of Czech literature; prose, poetry, drama, and non-fiction

Source languages: primarily books originally written in Czech 

Number of target languages: 80

Database history and changes in cataloguing practice: Originally, the database is derived from a one-time filtered import from the Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic. Fiction records have been consistently enriched with data (if available and reliable) on the source, target and relay language, translator(s), source work unified title, and source work persistent identifier. In the next phase, the database was expanded to include a manually processed bibliography of translations into Italian. From 2023 onwards, the bibliography is processed analytically (as far as possible), i.e. parts of books and recorded along with the umbrella record for books, and book part are assigned persistent work identifiers as well as unified original titles.

The dataset includes a data file in MRC format (binary MARC21), a description of the dataset and a specification of the local cataloguing practice of the CLB in TXT format.

4) Version 2
Alternative Title: Czech Literature in Translation – April 2025
Dataset export date: 16. 04. 2025

5) License 
CC BY NC SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode.en

6) Keywords
czech Literature, translation, history of translation

7) Project number
LM2023043

8) Format
binary MARC (.mrc)

9)File size
30 801 003 bytes

10) Number of records
22 948

11) Status of processing
Processing is mostly selective. Fiction records imported from the Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic are processed in full. Analytical processing is highly selective and only as of 2023.

12) Database specific use of MARC21 fields
035 – auxiliary field, used only in records import from other bibliographic databases. It hold the information on the source and the original field 001.

595 – includes five subfields to identify the source work of translation: a - author's name, d - author's vital data, 7 - persistent author identifier, t - unified work title, 1 - persistent work identifier 

915 – stage of processing. Values: True - completed record, False - imported but not processed, Mid - partially processed record (non-fiction: the work has been identified and the persistent identifier of the work has been assigned; fiction: the record is almost complete but some additional information is missing, e.g. the source language), Low - imported record underwent partial corrections only

964 – disambiguates the database - all translation records have TRL.
