Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)
An academic library as an integrated information centre: the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Gy. Rózsa all countries), the most complete information resources and services are provided by national libraries, in principle the role of the memory of mankind could be achieved by an aggregate, or even a world association, of national libraries. Such a theoretically united world library would naturally contain much duplication. The important research and cultural works, whether monographs, periodicals or any other medium of recorded information, are obtained by many national and other types of libraries. Indeed, documents collected in accordance with the criteria of national libraries can be considered as their contribution to the "world library". In the course of history, national libraries became not only national document collections, but also one among several universal and important collections of research material in their countries. This can be considered the general rule, but it must be added that in any country research is likely to be conducted most efficiently by cooperation between the national library and the other research libraries and information services which evolve alongside it. All this is coordinated internationally by contacts between libraries. The foregoing considerations are relevant to the theme of this paper, namely institutions that provide integrated information collections and services, specifically the Library of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (subsequently referred to as LHAS). In fact, the role of the national and universal research library in Hungary is jointly fulfilled by three large libraries. One of these is the LHAS, founded in 1826. The LHAS performs quasi-universal research library functions jointly with the ELTE Budapest University Library (founded 1635) through its holdings, though they do not perform standard national library functions. Besides their valuable "Hungarica" collections (especially those in manuscript and others printed abroad) these two libraries supplement the holdings of the National Széchényi Library (founded 1805) with its collections of foreign research literature. There is no point now in arguing whether or not this peculiar form of national library system is the best for a small country like Hungary; conditions developed through 200 years of history cannot readily be questioned (though it should be mentioned that the unification of the three large libraries was considered in the second half of the 19th century and later, during the few months' rule of the Republic of Councils in 1919.) If historical traditions and their existing functions are respected, the only real solution appears to be by means of national cooperation between these three large libraries. By virtue of its collections, the National Széchényi Library is explicitly and exclusively the primary source of Hungarian research material, including a variety of "Hungarica" documents (besides books, periodicals, maps, music, pamphlets, etc.) and provides classic national library services such as the national bibliography, union catalogue, etc. Thus the system of national and universal library 30 „ Thoughts in the library "
