The library at the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou is a core library with a specialized library collection. It is listed as a museum library in the records of libraries kept by the Ministry of Culture under number 5730. Its stock primarily specializes in the history and present of the glass and costume jewellery industry, and of artistic glass and jewellery. Materials relating to the history of the region are another important aspect of the collection. This all means that the library predominantly stores information relating to the museum's main pursuits.
There are two parts to the library: the special collection and the specialized (reference) library.
The special collection is registered under the Museum Act (122/2000 Sb.) as the BOOKS sub-collection of the museum's stock and numbers 151 items. It consists of books, mainly general-history, art-history, glass, and costume-jewellery related. The collection is built on old prints, encyclopaedias, and lexicons from the collections of the original Town Museum in Jablonec nad Nisou (active 1904-1945), the estate of historian Karel R. Fischer, and the library of the Chamber of Commerce and Trade in Liberec. The oldest item dates back to the 17th century, although most come from the 19th century.
The library also includes a sub-collection entitled PHOTOGRAPHS (the sub-collection is referred to in the central register of collections as "Photographs, films, video recordings, and other media"), in which 6,361 items were on record at the end of 2025. It is filled with individual portrait photographs, complete family albums (often important factory owners), and historical postcards, as well as photographs that detail events at the MSB – international exhibitions, foreign visitors at exhibition openings, vernissages, symposia, and conferences. There are also photographs of individual pieces from exhibitions of glass and costume jewellery (cups, scent bottles, vases, jewellery), glass products made by companies and students at glass-art schools, photographs of the production technology used to make glass and costume jewellery, the equipment and tools used to make costume jewellery, examples of small-scale home handicrafts, and the documentation of glassworks (interior, exterior). The sub-collection also includes photographs of architecture – churches, rectories, chapels, cemeteries, memorials, town halls, and schools, as well as general views of the town and of its the streets. Glass negatives, unique wholes that are gradually being digitized and made available to researchers, are another integral part of the sub-collection.
The reference library is run in line with the Library Act (257/2001 Sb.) and held a total of 22,572 accession copies at the end of 2025. The collection consists of books (specialized literature, catalogues, etc.) and periodicals. It subscribes to nine subscription-based periodicals in print and one electronic magazine. It is also donated sixteen periodicals, including five regional newsletters. The reference library collection cannot be taken from the premises. Anyone wanting to visit the study room of the reference library must make an appointment in advance by sending an e-mail to knihovna@msb-jablonec.cz or katerina.benesova@msb-jablonec.cz, or by calling 483 369 017.
The special collection at the museum reference library is kept on record using the Advanced Rapid Library (ARL) system. Anyone interested in browsing the catalogued books can use the electronic web catalogue: MSB web catalogue.
Work is also ongoing on correcting and modifying older cataloguing records to meet the minimum bibliographic record standards required to process documents according to the RDA Cataloguing methodology in MARC 21 format. Cooperation with the National Library and the mandatory import of records to the Union Catalogue of the Czech Republic are also in progress.
The library code which denotes the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou is JNE301.
