Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS HAGYOMÁNY – LIBRARY AND TRADITION

J. Zahradil Ungar,* who presented them as a five-volume list on January 21, 1785. Themes of the natural sciences and medicine prevailed on the list, however encyclopaedias and dictionaries were not omitted either. Owing to Ungar, Society members used University Library stocks too. Another Society member, Bohumil Dlabaö, formed an educational center in the Strahov Monastery Library and such as the nobles' libraries and a specialized library of the Prague Observatory also offered more educational possibilities. Many Society members had libraries of their own, too. Count Hartig also recommended in November 1786 the inclusion of Society members' publications in the Library. Owing to the publicity of the Society, a new source of publication acquisition appeared: review-prints and manuscripts offered for publication in the Society "Discourse".** T. Grubers's bequest also became an important addition to the Library. This bequest comprehended literature from the end of the 18th century - natural sciences, mathematics and works on physics as well as historical books and poetry, which were deposited in the library in 1806. In 1818 the Society commissioned one of its members - the mathematician and philosopher Bernard Bolzano - to prepare a list of books, held in the Library and in the store of the Society publications as well. Doing so, Bolzano set up a new order in the Library. From 1819, he became the Society "director" and he proved his good knowledge of the library and his concern in its further perfection in performing this duty. Bolzano's impulse to improve the state of the Society Library presented a new approach to functions of a Society Library in general. International co-operation was brought about due to personal connections of Society members - therefore, owing to Josef Dobrovsky, the Society Library acquired volumes of the Annual Reports published by the "Friends of Science' Society" in Warsaw. Growth of the library necessitated its more suitable accommodation and the acceptance of new organizational measures. The Library obtained another room in Carolinum in 1828, then in December 1831 the Society secretary Matias Kalina suggested the "social functionaries" to be appointed for the management of the * K. R. Ungar was a Society member and from 1785 its "director". Ungar worked as a librarian in the Strahov Monastery Library and was the first administrator of the Prague University Library, being a founder of its Czech department - the National Library. ** "The Discourse of the Royal Czech Science Society" was the main Society periodical, where studies of Society members and non-members were published. First, the Discourse was edited exclusively in German (Abhandlungen der königlichen bömischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Prag auf das Jahr ...), but, by the middle of the 19th century, there were works written in Czech, and later on even works written in other languages were also published in it. From 1887 this series-collection was called "The Transactions of the Royal Czech Science Society". 104 „ Thoughts in the library "