Instead, the library\'s director of investment was trapped in her office, wading through hundreds of applications from architecture firms vying to build the Czech Republic a new national library in Letná Park.

\"We\'ve basically had interest from the whole cultural world for this project,\" said Langová.

More than 720 firms from six continents are submitting designs to Langová\'s office for what could turn out to be the largest public building project in Prague in decades: a 50,000-square-meter (538,000-square-foot) building costing nearly 2 billion Kč ($80.7 million).

Library Director Vlastimil Ježek said he expected only 300 firms to show interest. The library was forced to quadruple the number of people processing applications in order to ensure that the bidding process would stay on schedule.

Officials will announce the winning design March 3. The project, which the Culture Ministry will fund with the help of the City of Prague, should break ground in 2008.

Plans for a new library aim to transform an area of Letná — along busy Milady Horákové street — many feel is underutilized, the home of parked tour buses and the occasional circus.

The Klementinum, near Charles Bridge, has housed the National Library since 1935. This site of a former Dominican monastery and later a Jesuit college has been a repository of knowledge for centuries.

But the library\'s collection of more than 6 million volumes, growing at a rate of 80,000 per year, has long been too much for the Klementinum to handle. For the past 10 years, the library has tried to relieve the strain by storing its overstocked books in a facility in Hostivař in Prague 10. In 1997, it began converting some of its book collection into electronic format to free up additional shelf space.

The Culture Ministry and the City of Prague have discussed expanding the National Library for nearly 50 years, and the vision for the project has varied greatly since then.

Langová said the library most recently considered a \"desperate plan\" to construct makeshift buildings within the Klementinum\'s historic courtyards to house its surplus books and manuscripts.

Officials had to abandon that idea when the 2002 floods damaged the Klementinum, forcing them to build the new library on higher ground. The new building on Letná will become the main branch of the National Library and hold volumes from the 19th century to the present.

The Klementinum will stay in use, mainly as gallery and public space. It will eventually undergo a renovation in 2008 at a cost of another 1 billion Kč.

Prizes and promises

The list of architects currently drawing up plans for the library is kept anonymous, but the library has gathered a group of prestigious judges from around the world to decide which firm to award the contract to. Among them is Zaha Hadid, a world-renown Iraqi-British architect whose work is currently on display at the Guggenheim in New York City through October.

The National Library will spend more than 25 million Kč on the competition alone, and is offering more than 600,000 euros ($756,000/17 million Kč) in prizes to the winning firm and runners-up to ensure a large number of design proposals.

The project for a new library, however, still doesn\'t have the funding required to begin construction. But Langová added that politicians have said the money will be there once it is needed.

\"They say they will keep their promise,\" she said. \"We will see.\"