AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1971-1972. Budapest (1973)

I. Az OSZK 1970-197l-ben - Somkuti Gabriella: Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 1970—1971. évi működése - The Activities of the National Széchényi Library in 1970—1971

It was also during these years that the question of the foreign "hungarica" works was settled. After theoretical, organizational and practical preparations the Library launched its quarterly Hungarica. Külföldi Folyóiratszemle (Hungarica. Review of Foreign Periodicals)

, which strives to collect the articles relating to Hungary appearing in foreign periodicals. The editing of other hungarica bibliographies was also started by the Bibliographical Department, supported by theoretical advice from a special committee. The year 1971 was a turning pont in the bibliographical work concerned with the literary products of Hungary in old times, when the first volume of Régi Magyarországi Nyomtatványok (Old Prints of Hungary) covering the years 1473-1600 was published with the support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This scholarly publication uses the most up-to-date bibliographical methods to cover the first period of printing in Hungary and thus replaces its 19th century predecessor. Another important historical bibliography appearing also in 1971 was the extension to the four volumes of Géza PETRIK'S Magyarország bibliográfiája 1712-1860. As volume 5 it adds 7,660 new titles to the bibliography of the years 1712-1800. Use and Users Reference Service The declining trend of attendance noticeable since 1964 stopped and the number of units tised showed a marked rise greatly surpassing the average of the earlier period. Naturally, a greater rise in the number of readers is conceivable only in the new building, at present there are obvious limits. The Reference Service has regularly provided bibliographical information and written answers to institutions and researchers both home and abroad. Among the special collections the greatest number of written information was provided by the Manuscript Department and the Music Collection. Storage, conservation and reprography The new acquisitions of the Library could be put on the stacks only by the constant removing of the older material which was transferred to stopgap stacks located at various parts of the capital. This unhappy situation will change only after the completion of the stacks of the new building. One of the major, nationally most important tasks of the Library is the saving of the old newspapers and periodicals from decay by way of restoring and microfilming them. The financial resources of this work were greatly increased in 1969 and the result has been considerable. Beside microfilming the newpapers many documents of the special collections are also being photographed. The best results of restoration work were achieved in the field of conserving the special collections. 1971 brought about the long awaited changes in reprographic work with the installation of several up-to-date machines. Historic libraries The restoration of the Antal Reguly Library at Zirc, started in 1968, was finished and it was ceremonially opened in March 1970. The Helikon Library at Keszthely was closed owing to reconstruction work in the Festetics castle, but library work did not stop. //. The central coordinative services of the Library In addition to constant development and improvement in the work connected with the actual holdings the Library paid increasing attention to the organization and performance of the central coordinative services as well. They include the Distribution of Deposit Copies: in 1971 this service distributed more than 910,000 publications delivered to it; the Book Distribution Service continued to reallot the duplicate copies of the Hungarian libraries: it received and distributed 24,371 volumes in 1970 and 18,995 ones in 1971; the International Exchange Service maintained regular contact with 551 institutions from 61 countries in 1971. It provided 20 Hungarian libraries with foreign books and 100 libraries with periodicals; 74