Sz. Németh Mária: A központi folyóirat-címjegyzék kérdései (A MTAK kiadványai 12. Budapest, 1959)

MAUIA NEMETH: OX THE PROBLEMS OF UNION LISTS OF PERIODICALS I. In the introduction the paper points out the continually growing role oj periodicals in scientific research. On the basis of international special literature the author examines the facts of this development, its consequences at libraries, and the problems concerning the analysis of periodicals. II. The work of analysing and making periodicals accessible to readers is essentially carried on in three fields nowadays : a) in bibliographies ; b) in union catalogues ; c) in special publications reviewing papers appeared in periodicals. This time the treatise, according to its objectives, is dealing with union lists of periodicals which may be included in the second category. It, is more exactly a type of these lists, namely printed union list of periodicals which will be treated here in detail. First of all, the author acquaints us with the notion and some characteristic features of a union catalogue. Considering the special literature on this problem (among others the papers by J. VOItSTlUS, H. ROLOFF, L. BHUMMEL, E. EGGER, 11. B. DOWNS, P. BOURGEOIS, L.N. MALCLES, J. D. STEWART, P. Th. LOOSJES, W. A.SMITH, F. HONKER, DUYV1S, H. GROSSER), she ascertains : 1. Printed title list is only a kind of union catalogues and not an independent form. Neither of them can be separated from each other. It is the card catalogue which constitutes the basis of a printed one. 2. Union catalogues are not simply mechanically composed of different libraries' catalogues, but those raise particular problems concerning theory, content, form, and construction, too. 3. Although union catalogues, consequently also printed, lists of periodicals, perform, to a certain extent, the functions of bibliographies, yet it must be mgde clear that union catalogue and bibliography may not be considered as one and the same. III. The author sums up the tasks oj union catalogues oj periodicals as follows : 1. to fix the locations of books ; 2. as a result, to support arranging inter-library loans and acquiring microfilms ; 3. to assist libraries, within the boundaries of the given country, in acquiring, distributing, completing periodicals ; 4. to help reference service at the problems connected with periodicals, and, within limits, to give bibliographical assistance ; 5. in case of occasional war damages, to reconstruct the title lists of periodicals of the libraries participating in establishing the union catalogue. IV. On the basis of her own researches and the special literature on the subject (cf. first of all the papers by R, MUMMENDEY, L. N. MALCLES, E. EGGER, F. SCHMITT, the prefaces of printed union catalogues of periodicals, reviews etc.), the author gives us a short survey of the history oj printed union lists of periodicals, then she acquaints us, according to countries, with the best-known publications, which seem to be of importance to the Hungarian location index in preparation. V. In order to examine the criteria and the characteristic features of printed location indexes, the treatise takes into consideration not only the articles and publications appeared up to the present, but also other documents. At the request of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, certain research libraries and the editors of title lists of periodicals made the documents available which have not been worked up in ther international special literature on the subject. (From Austria: Mr. J. Stummvoll, directo