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12. NArodnI Museum v Prazc. I.a Semaine des musłts celćbrće solcnncliemcnt cn 1956 a ćre rcnouvelec au Musće national cn 1957. Expo-sition spćciale consacrće a la litteraturc museo-ęraphiquc internationalc. orgnnisće par la bibliothćquc du Musće national. Des graphiques et des carrcs illustraicnt les relations scienti-fiqucs du Musće national et des instituts ćtran-gers, et mettaient cn relief’ les ćchangcs inter-nationaux dc publications.

12. Museum Week, which was obscrvcd with fuli ceremony in 1956, was repeated in the National Muscum in 1957. A special exhibition of International museographical literaturę, organized by the Library of the National Muscum. The Museum's scientific contacts with forcign muscums and their intcrnational cxchanges of publications were illustcatcd by wall-maps and charts.

and ToworroWy and the National Museum in Prague, on Africa as secu by a Big-Ganie Hunter and The C^ech ViUage in the Aliddle Ages. The Naprstck Museum of General Ethnology staged exhibitions on Unbwwn Tibety From Bohen/ia to the End of the Worldy and other subjeets. In the same way, the homeland muscums’- stage exhibitions ona variety of subjeets. On the occasion of the launching of the Soviet Sputnik, the Podebrady Regional Museum ran an exhibition on Artificial Satellites. The Glasswarc Museum in Jablonec has organized a very successful exhibition on Glass-Alaking in JabloneCy the Museum in Osti nad Labem/Trmice ran one on The Alinerals of the Ore Mountains and the Central Bobewian Rangę and the Regional Museum in Pardubice one on The Birdsof onr Conntrj: Their Iwportance and Profection. As a rulc, each exhibition is accompanied by a series of lectures on the particular subject, one day a week bcing set aside for lectures. Every fortnight, for cxample, the Jihlava Regional Museum organizes a series of lectures and study trips on subjeets of local interest, which end with a study of local lorę and traditions. Usually on one of the evenings, the research workers of the Museum Staff reply to questions put by their audiences and question them in turn on the subject matter of the previous lectures. The lecture cycles organized by the Jihlaya Museum, for example, included talks on such subjeets as Rare Bird Visitors to the Bobewian-AIoraoian Heighłs_y Folk Art in the Hor dc ko Area, O Id Alnsicians of onr Region, etc.

The Association of Czech Museums and the Association of Slovak Museums, to which all museums in the country belong, organize annual working conferences which are regularly attendcd by 300 to 350 museum workers. They serve as a medium for the dissemination of fresh knowledge and the cxchangc of expericnce of museographical techniques.

The regional National Committecs take steps to raise the professional lcvel of museum Staff by organizing courses and seminars. Since 1957, the Museography Commission has been issuing studies and manuals, while the individual museums issue publications describing the results obtained and the experience acquired by museums of all types. In addition, scientific publications are exchanged with museums abroad. For instance, the Moravian Museum in Brno and the National Museum in Prague each maintain contact with over 700 institutions abroad.

Czechoslovak museum workers are anxious to develop friendly relations with all foreign establishments, for they regard this as a means of maintaining peace through-out the world. As people whose work involves the careful conservation of objects relating to the life, work and culture of their people, they regard the elimination of war as one of their foremost tasks.

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( Translated fro/n the C^ech.)