You've scoured the Web, but you can't seem to find it: that elusive 1969 summer edition of Life magazine, the vintage copy bearing a full-profile shot of American Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong and his lunar landing on the cover. You're smack in the middle of a vital research project about the space race, so where do you turn?

Welcome to the new American Center. Located right beside the U.S. Embassy on Tržiště street in Malá Strana, the facility is the United States' "new face in Prague," according to Michael G. Hahn, 56, the director of the center.

Part of a network of 175 such facilities worldwide, the Czech Republic's American Center is reputedly the largest in Central and Eastern Europe. So far, it's been open only for conferences and art exhibitions, the most recent by American graphic artist Mark Podwal. A new exhibit featuring portraits of American writers by photographer Nancy Crompton opens in mid-December, marking the official opening of the center as a full-service research, exhibition and conference facility.

While its technical capabilities are a marvel, what's most significant about the center is the fresh American profile it establishes in Prague. "This is a way of reversing the post-9/11 trend," says Hahn. "It's an effort to open things up more."

The roots of the American Center reach back nearly 30 years. During the 1970s and '80s, the United States maintained a small lending library near its embassy, located a few doors up the street from the embassy's current location. The library served as an alternative source of information, a place where Czechs "could come to read a Western magazine, or maybe even sit and watch a good American documentary," says Hahn, whose ancestors were from Prague.

In 1993, the library moved to the former location of the Lenin Museum at the famous Hybernia House near náměstí Republiky, where it remained until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "Then it retreated into the embassy," notes Hahn, behind the same wall of security thrown up around every American facility that might be a target, most notably the Radio Free Europe building by the National Museum.

The new American Information Center in the embassy offered a wealth of reading and resource material. But it was out of sight and, practically speaking, inaccessible to most people.

In 2002, space became available in a building immediately adjacent to the U.S. Embassy, a former stately manor. What had been the stables were converted into the Wilson Center, a conference and meeting facility, with mixed results. "It encompassed about one-third of the available space in the building," says Hahn. "But it was a bit on the dingy side, and dark."

The shortcomings of both facilities were resolved through what Hahn characterizes as serendipity: "We heard that an American law firm which had occupied the room encompassing what is now the new center was about to move out. So we contemplated taking over the lease and expanding. We contacted the landlord, and, despite several bureaucratic hassles, we managed to acquire the spot.

"So, I guess, through a series of very fortunate circumstances, we now occupy more space than we'd ever thought imaginable."

Accessibility

The bright new American Center stretches across three rooms of the building's second floor. Two conference rooms, the larger with a total capacity of 60 people and the smaller able to hold 30, will feature U.S.-related programming encompassing a wide variety of subjects, from music to business to news. One room is also outfitted for DVCs, or digital video conferences, with featured guests located in the United States talking to people in Prague via a real-time videoconference connection. Some of these have already taken place; among the names on the upcoming schedule are Crompton and writer Michael Cunningham, the latter as part of a joint U.S. Embassy-Prague Writer's Festival initiative.

A technology-driven reference room will make available a wide collection of periodicals — "in the several thousands of titles," says Hahn, of U.S. foreign policy publications, magazines, journals "and even a handful of pocket guides to the U.S." for prospective travelers.

The reference room will come fully equipped with six computer workstations, including two in a reserved "press corner" loaded with unique services such as Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters news-feed database; Proquest, another electronic database; and a normally for-pay database called JStore.

"JStore is typically available only at the university level or in most larger libraries, though nowhere else in Prague except here," notes Hahn. "We'll be offering it free of charge. Copies of certain other materials will be free, too. Plus, our staff are qualified to respond to quick reference questions over the telephone, on a case-by-case basis. For example, if you wanted to know the population of Denver, we could answer that quickly. You'll also have the ability to reserve certain materials by e-mail request."

From a practical standpoint, the new American Center neatly combines the functions of the old Wilson Center and American Information Center, and makes them much more accessible. But Hahn has aspirations beyond that, talking of a "two-way cultural flow" he hopes to create between Czechs and Americans.

The center is also expanding geographically, with smaller satellite facilities in Brno, south Moravia, and Plzeň, west Bohemia. Those will be known as "Info USA Centers," and, according to Hahn, will offer similar resources available to Praguers through connections using the relevant technology.