AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1976-1977. Budapest (1979)

I. Az OSZK 1976-1977-ben - Somkuti Gabriella: Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 1976—1977. évi működése - The Activities of the National Széchényi Library in the Years 1976—1977

The National Széchényi Library acts as the special library for Hungarian literature. In accordance with this function it has decided to publish a yearly bibliography on that subject. First the volume covering 1976 will appear in 1978. The Library continued its participation in the various international bibliographical undertakings, e.g. RISM, IBHB, etc. We have also met our obligations for the international registration of periodical publications (both for the ISDS centre in in Paris and the regional ASRPI centre in Moscow. Our specialists are also contributing to the further development of these systems. Reference Service On average the Library is used by 65,000 readers yearly, who use about 4 — 500,000 units. (The high number of units used by a person is explained by the nature of the collections at the Departments of Posters and Small Prints and of Manuscripts resp., where many one-leaf units are used.) The number of readers registered in a year is about 13,000. The serving of the readers is becoming more and more difficult, as about one half of the complete holdings is stored on the stacks of the new building under construction. This fact slows down service and does damage to the material. The Reference Service considers its primary duty to give information and bibliographical advice on the literary production of Hungary. A number of high-quality answers are being sent to institutions and individuals both at home and abroad. Storage, conservation and reproduction The stacks in the new building of the Library in the Vár (Castle) are being put into use. All the books which had been kept in various stop-gap storing places under unfavourable conditions (making up nearly 50 per cent of the complete holdings), are now on shelves. But transport between the central reading rooms and the stacks in the new building is becoming increasingly difficult. The numerical data on conservation (binding, restoration, microfilming) falls behind the figures of the previous years, since the reconstruction and modernization of the premises hindered work. Under the programme of the protective microfilming of the Hungarian newspapers 3.6 million newspaper pages were filmed on 1.6 million negative microfilm frames. Another 0.6 million frames were taken from the material of the special collections (manuscripts, musical notes, etc.). 2.9 million positive frames were prepared for the readers' use. Microfilming on orders also increased and 1.8 million positive frames were made during the period. The other reproduction services (multiplication, Xeroxing, photocopying) also reached considerable proportions. Inter-library (central) services At the end of 1977 a new law was passed regulating the delivery of deposit copies. The specialists of the Library played a not inconsiderable part in its drawing up. The new law, which comes into force in 1978, makes changes mainly in distribution and provides better supply for the special libraries, mainly for those outside Budapest, in 1976/77 out of more than two million deposit copies we distributed more than one million between the various other libraries. The ISBN system was consolidated and 97.3 per cent of the publications of the professional publishing houses appeared with an ISBN. In 1977 the system of international identification numbers was extended to the periodical publications as well (ISSN). A series of reforms got under way in the Union Catalogue of Books, e.g. the delimitation of its terms of reference, the reorganization of the work, etc. To-day about 100 libraries in Budapest and 50 from the countryside place the bibliographical data of their foreign acquisitions at the disposal of this central service, which now contains about three million cards. In 1976 a new service was introduced, the publication of a location list entitled Foreign Works of Reference in the Social Sciences, whose yearly two issues give current information on the new works falling under this category, which reach the various Hungarian libraries and institutions. 68