György Rózsa: Information: from claims to needs (Joint edition published by the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Kultura Hungarian Foreign Trading Company. Budapest, 1988)
II. International relations in the field of scientific information
129 partly responsible for Geneva becoming a conference city. It is more than just a library; it is a centre for studies of international links, and, beyond its duties relating to the U.N., to delegations and to conferences, it is an international focus for social scientists. 3 It has a special place in the Swiss and in the European order of libraries, being a base for the practical study of international relations. While in New York the DHL may rely on the strength of the New York Public Library and Columbia University Library, in Europe the researchers and libraries look to Geneva in respect of the study of international links and relations. The Geneva Library has a dual function; it is an official library yet it also serves a community of scholars. Its collecting sphere includes history, and the whole range of the social sciences. It is an integrated body with archival, museological, information and library functions. This had struck me as not dissimilar to the Hungarian Academy Library, which also draws two types of users: those in official and those in some scientific capacity. The Library was founded together with the League of Nations in 1919, and in 1920 it was transferred from London to Geneva. (This continuity with its mother institution is another similarity with the Hungarian Academy Library.) The Palais was built in 1936. In 1927 the L of N received the fund of $ 2 million from John D. Rockefeller, so that it might become the centre for international links. Up to the present day the Library enjoys the interests of this sum. A sketch plan for the activities of the library Official documents and publications: U.N. and League of Nations Governmental bodies. International inter- and non intergovernmental bodies Academic publications; professional literature, books, proceedings. U.N. Library Official bodies U.N./League of Nations system; Governmental bodies; International inter- and non intergovernmental bodies Academic bodies and individual researchers There had been 800,000 volumes of books, 10,000 current publications and several millions of other documents, filling, in toto, 35 km of shelving. There were thousands of books and periodicals in the subject reading rooms (international documents, periodic publications, social science collections) which, on the whole, gives an overview of representative collections. From reference questions to in depth literature searches, the Library was obliged to take on everything. It served the 3000 officials of the Palais as well as the participants of the congresses. In 1974 alone there were 5600 conferences held in the Palais, but the Library also served "outside" conferences (e.g. the Security Conference) as well.
