AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1960. Budapest (1962)

IV. Könyvtár- és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok - Summaries

On ground of the code structure we can distinguish four types of coding systems depending on whether one or both of the generic or specific components in the codes are of direct or combinatoric construction. For all types we determine the principles and the method of the construction of a code system to be formed for a coding field of any extent, as well as for the code system of maximum capacity. We establish the formulas necessary for the evaluation of the characteristic data of these systems. Tables show the important data of the code systems of all types. In the appendix we publish the whole stock of codes of the systems which may practically be taken into consideration. Analysis of the research use of the Periodicals Division in the National Széchényi Library. G. KÓKAY The necessity of an analysis of the research use of the Periodicals Division had arisen, on the one hand, owing to the recognition throughout the world of the growing importance of studying the library-user's information needs, on the other, due to the specific viewpoints of our domestic cultural and library policies. The Periodicals Division of our Library is, at present, the second in the line of the most frequented collections: annually approximately 25,000 readers use more than 100,000 volumes of periodicals. Numerous difficulties marked the road until this large-scale utilization of the material was arrived at: one among the many was that the Periodicals Division, founded in 1884 by József Szinnyei, a man among the first in Europe to recognize the importance of collecting newspapers and periodicals, obtained a reading-room of its own only as late as in 1950. In the first ten years of its existence this special reading-room became very popular among scientific researchers and readers. The analyses, carried out with the aid of statistical methods, have given a clearer picture than any up to now of the number and composition of the users and the aims they followed in visiting the collection; the statistics also afforded a good insight into the volume and type of material used. A comparison of similar data relating to the other collections of the Library revealed that in the number of visitors to the Library, scientific researchers were prevalent among those using the material of the Periodicals Division. Statistics for the last three years have shown that 30% of the readers of the Division were researchers, 20% university-, high-school or other students, 50% belonged to miscellaneous professions. Random tests, however, proved that even in this latter category a part of the readers who visited the Periodicals Division did so for the purpose of scientific research or the assembling of information, while the other part of the users pursued a more practical reason in coming to the Division by searching for old laws or the announcements of appointments in old volumes of newspapers, they wanted to read articles long ago published, etc. Regarding the type of newspapers and periodicals used by visitors, compared with available data for similar divisions in the other Budapest libraries, in the National Széchényi Library the demand for older volumes of newspapers and periodicals was predominant; also periodicals not available elsewhere were much sought for. The material used was mainly of a literary, historical of sociological nature. The author asserts that the results of these analyses should be taken into consideration, in the future formulation of the Division's reference work. 348