Major donations to the library

Vladislav Kruta Collection

The Vladislav Kruta Collection became part of the MUCL in the spring of 2008. The collection includes 1375 books and journals which Professor Kruta donated to the Masaryk University in the 1970s as he approached the end of his life. Read more about the turbulent life of this well-respected Czech physiologist and his book collection.

Professor Gehring’s donation

At the beginning of 2009, MUCL received a valuable donation from prof. dr. Waltera J. Gehring from the University of Basel directed to the National Centre for Biomolecular Research at the Faculty of Science. We received approximately 400 yearly volumes of prestigious scientific journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, etc. The journals can be found in the eastern study room at MUCL.

Professor Žaloudík’s donation

In January 2010, Professor Žaloudík, former Dean of the MU Faculty of Medicine, donated 130 medical books to our library. The vast majority of these are titles frequently requested by our readers. Most of the books can be found in the western study room of the MUCL.

Professor Šmarda’s donation

In July 2010, Professor Šmarda from the Department of Biology at the MU Faculty of Medicine donated over 250 biomedical books and journals to our library.

Lachema donation

During the dissolution of Lachema, a Czech pharmaceutical company with a long history, the MUCL was able to secure a donation of some of the books and journals from the Lachema company library. Dr Paruch from the Department of Chemistry at the MU Faculty of Science was instrumental in helping to select the publications and move them to our library. This donation included many highly specialised international books and journals as well as some Czech titles and has been fully integrated into the MUCL collection since early April 2011. All readers are now able to enjoy these publications in our study rooms or upon request from our closed stacks.

Dr John Chalmer’s donation

In December 2015, the MUCL received a valuable donation from Dr John Chalmers, a former president of the British Orthopaedic Research Society. The donation includes 57 volumes of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery journal published between 1948–1994 and a complete 4-volume set of Campbell’s Operative Orthopaedics. Our library would like to thank Dr Chalmers as well as Dr Paul Millar, the honorary consul of Czechia in Scotland, and MUDr. Jiřina Jedličková, the head of the haematology lab of the Centre of Cardiovascular Surgery and Transplantation in Brno, for their selfless assistance and efforts to facilitate the delivery of this donation to our library.