AZ EGYETEMI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVEI 7-8. (Budapest, 1997)

Szögi László: Előszó

Preface László MÁTRAY, the university Library's director general of that time initiated 35 years ago, in 1962 the publication of a collection, the Annuals of the University Library. In the following ten years up to 1972 every two years the Annual was published regularly, representing the level of the professional work that were going in the University Library and also the results of our colleagues' scientific research. In that period the University Library was famous for its nationally and internationally well-known collection, but also due to its prominent collaborators who have created considerable works in the science of library studies and in other specialities, too. if we run through the pages of the annuals published in the mentioned decade, we will find amongst the authors Ákos DOMANOVSZKY , Miklós MARÓT, Györgyné PAJKOSSY , András TÓTH, Miklós vÉRTEsY, and many others. Dezső DüMMERTH, Pál ENGEL, György HÖLVÉNYI , Edit izsÉPY, Zsuzsanna HERMANN , László MÁTRAY and László MEZEY have published dissertations in the annuals on the subjects of philosophy and history. This list of names, though by far cannot be complete, demonstrates, as we think, that in the period of the sixties there was a high-level scientific work directly attached to the University Library and its precious stocks. The author of these lines lived this period, being a student of the University, still remembers the respect and authority which enclosed the Library. It was natural to the researchers of the university and first of all to the philosophy and history professors of the Faculty of Arts to take their time to research and write essays in the research-room of the University Library and exchange their views in a fertile professional environment. It was also a considerable honour to the young professors and the students writing their theses to have the chance to work in this highly respected institution and made to get acquainted with the atmosphere of research. The publication of the annuals was interrupted in 1972 and already 25 years have passed since then. The institution patronized the scientific research through that period as well and its purpose was to publish the results of these studies in accordance with its possibilities. There was another collection of publications, „Fontes et Studia Bibliotheca Universitatis Budapestinensis" which appeared during the period when G. Béla NÉMETH was the director general. In this collection some minor source publications or essays appeared edited by Péter KULCSÁR . Between 1983 and 1992, eight volumes were published and excepting one volume, they were all of modest format; this was in some part due to the situation of the Library which was getting more and more difficult. Approaching the turn of the twentieth century the University Library, just as all the Hungarian higher education is doing its work amongst 18