Tőkés László: Az Akadémiai Könyvtár mikrokönyv gyűjteménye és fotolaboratóriuma (A MTAK kiadványai 27. Budapest, 1962)

The acquisition, arrangement, storage and accessibility of the vast quantity of scientific publications and other available forms of research material presents the great scientific libraries, specialised libraries and information institutes with difficult tasks — problems that may no longer be solved by the traditional methods. The new methods of library technique, the various microcopying and document copying processes with whose help the stock of a library or manuscript department can be duplicated, stored, sorted and lent in the form of microcopies, are therefore playing an increasingly important part in the work of the scientific libraries and information institutes. The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was among the first Hungarian libraries to recognize the importance of microfilming and document copying — its micro-library and photographic laboratory were founded in 1953. For the first few years, this modern service of the Library only had a few simple cameras, but with the rapid rise in the number of orders placed for microfilms and photographs, it became necessary to supplement the technical equipment. In 1955 the Academy was able to set a microfilm camera and automatic microcopy processing equipment to work. In 1957—58 UNESCO contributed considerable financial resources and the Academy further experts and promises to the modernization of the micro-library and photographic laboratory. The photographic laboratory now has an automatic microfilm camera, a continuous microfilm printer, a microfiche camera, rapid copying equipment, optical photocopying apparatus, plate and miniature cameras, enlargers, microcopy reading apparatus and many other items of photographic laboratory equipment. The service of the photographic laboratory which is most frequently required by research workers and institutes, is the preparation of reproductions and photocopies of the material of the Library — these account for the major part of the orders placed. The total number of orders satisfied by the photographic laboratory was 734 in 1957, 1862 in I960 and 2110 in 1961. The photoreproduction service undertakes the preparation of the following types of microphotograph or photocopy: Negative 35 mm microfilm Positive 35 mm microfilm Reproduction on 9x12 cm plate Reproduction on miniatures film Optical photocopies of 15x21 cms and 21 X30 cms. Contact rapid copies of 15x21 cms and 21X30 cms. Enlargements from film and plate in various sizes Negative or positive microfiche and opaquo microcard of 9 X 12 cms. The percentage distribution of those placing the orders is shown by the following table, based on the orders placed in 1961: Library readers, research workers 17,3 percent Departments or Institutes of the Hung. Ac. Sci. .. 16,5 ,, Departments of the Academy's Library 13 ,, Industrial research institutes, designing bureaux, works libraries 13,5 ,, University institutes or libraries 12,1 „ Orders from abroad . . . 20,6 ,, Ministries, publishers or government offices 4 ,, Museums, libraries 3 ,, About half of the orders are for cheap opt ical photocopies of books and periodicals, to be read with the unaided eye. This copying process makes it possible to avoid interlibrary lending, and to make the periodicals stock of the Academy's Library more readily available to research workers. The reproduction of manuscripts and old books takes place through the preparation of microfilms, microcards or plates. This part of the Library's stock is also arousing increasing interest, for the photocopies are used by provincial and foreign research workers for their scientific work, by publishers to produce their illustrations, and by the organizers of museums and exhibitions,