Acquires foreign materials for the library collections by purchase, exchange, or donation. Acts as a national centre for the international exchange of official publications.
By acquisition, the NLCR acquires foreign materials in accordance with the application of the Conspectus international method. Statistics on materials received are published yearly in the annual report. Another source of acquisition is international exchange between libraries, especially university and national libraries, and donations. A significant part of this exchange is linked to acquiring periodical literature. Donations can be divided into publications acquired as part of the Czech Republic’s membership in international organisations (UN, UNESCO, Council of Europe) and those that are part of the Czech National Library’s membership in various organisations. The composition of some donations can be influenced by agreement with the donor; however, some donations are gifts of a spontaneous nature, from which only relevant publications are selected (the rest are redistributed to other institutions).