AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1958. Budapest (1959)

II. A könyvtári munka módszertani kérdéseiről - Gombocz István: Központi csereszolgálatok

13. Report on the international exchange service for the year ended June 30, 1957. Washington, 1958, Smithsonian Institution. Pages 163—171. 14. Bali, A. D.: The United States Book Exchange, Inc. A self supporting exchange centre. (Final report of the Seminar on the international exchange of publications in the Indo-Pacific Area. Tokyo, 1958, 229—233 p.) 15. Hamel, G. H.: Le centre international d'échanges des Pays-Bas. = Echange de publications, circulaire No. 9. Paris, 1958, Unesco. 16. Le centre national d'échanges de Pologne = Echange de publications, circulaire No. 8. Paris, 1958, Unesco. 17. Arbeitsordnungen. Internationale Austauschstelle und Tauschstelle der Deutschen Demokratisclien Republik. 18. Kanevskij, Boris P.: Experience of the Lenin State Library and other Soviet libraries in the field of International Book Exchange. (Final report of the Seminar on the international exchange of publications in the Indo-Pacific Area. Tokyo, 1958. 190—195. p.) Kanevskij, Boris P.: International exchange of publications at the Lenin State Library. = Unesco B. for Libr. 1959, 2—3. sz. National Centres for the International Exchange of Publications ISTVÁN GOMBOCZ The Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture is prepaiing a nation-wide decree which — among others — clearly defines the main functions of the Hungarian Service of International Exchange. At the end of 1958 Hungary became a signatory to the two Exchange Conventions recently adopted by the 10th General Assembly of the Unesco. These events and the world-wide tendency to promote the international exchange of publications, necessitated the investigation of the questions whether or not the establishing of exchange centres was justified, in what manner they were developed, in which way Hungary was solving its problems at present, how the centres of other countries were working, etc. I. Evolution of centralized services To ascertain how, when, and why central exchange services came into being, past developments have to be surveyed. Two main causes may be found: at the end of the last century the collecting of official publications was started, which required central transmitting offices. The second motive for centralizing the services was furnished by the trend of economy, inasmuch as the exchanging scientific institutions and libraries chose the cheaper method of forwarding their packages through a transmitting organ, instead of mailing them directly to the parties concerned. Such an office collected the packages from the various consignors and forwarded them jointly as freight-goods to centres abroad, which distributed them among the addressees. The advantages derived by this system were one of the main reasons for the calling into life of the Brussels Convention originally signed by 8 states in 1886. The collecting process, however, accounted for the slowing-down in the dispatching of the printed material, which fact — besides other additional reasons — kept many countries from adopting the new Convention. On the other hand, other countries never adhered to the Brussels 224