AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1982-1983. Budapest (1984)

I. Az OSZK 1982-1983-ban - Somkuti Gabriella: Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár működése 1982—1983-ban - The Activity of the National Széchényi Library in the Years 1982—1983

In order to finish the protective microfilming project, which has been going on for about 15 years now, as soon as possible, the filming of newspapers was given preference over that of the documents of the special collections. As a result of this, almost 3.5 million newspaper pages were microfilmed. Our reprographical capacity was improved vastly by the three new, high-speed photocopiers installed in 1983. Unfortunately, the continual supply of paper, film, and spare parts could not always be ensured, due to the growing difficulties in obtaining them

. Central services In the last few years there were no significant changes in the number of legal deposit copies delivered by Hungarian printing houses, usually a bit more than 1.2 million. The system in force since 1978 assures a better distribution of legal deposit copies within the country and functions smoothly today. According to the regional principle, a complete set of deposit copies is sent to each appointed leading library in the 5 regions of the country; while special libraries receive a share of deposit copies of technical literature pertaining to their collection. In the course of these two years 8.7 thousand publications issued by professional publishers were given ISBNs

; the corresponding figure for non-professional ones being 10.5 thousand. New ISSNs were assigned to some 1,000 newly started serials. The Union Catalogue of Foreign Books in Hungary received about 400 thousand records from libraries in 1982/83. The number of questions answered increased to more than 21,000 each years. Some 140,000 entries were registered in the Union Catalogue of Foreign Periodicals. Information was given on their location in more than 13,000 cases. In 1983 the volume containing material from "L" to "N" of the retrospective finding list (Külföldi időszaki kiadványok a magyar könyvtárakban a XVII. századtól 1970-ig. — Union catalogue of foreign serials in Hungarian libraries from the 17th century to 1970) was published as the result of more than ten years of work. The globally growing constraints of the economic situation manifested themselves in the decrease of book and periodical imports, leading naturally to an increased need for interlibrary lending, this clearly reflected in the increasing number of requests received

: 24,000 in 1981, 25,8 thousand in 1982 and 26,3 thousand in 1983. We managed to satisfy most of the requests by the improvement of organization and methodology, and by establishing new connections. From among our foreign partners Germany, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and France answered the most Hungarian requests. Due to economic difficulties the role of the international exchange of publications had also gained importance. It cannot be neglected, however, that low book prices, characteristic of socialist countries in general, put us at a disadvantage in the exchange of publications with capitalist countries. In 1982/83 we sent about 35,000 books, and over 4,000 periodicals abroad each year. The number of books received in return from abroad was about 10,000, that of periodicals was about 2,000. During this two-year period the Centre for Duplicates and Surplus Copies distributed 42,000 duplicates among Hungarian libraries, and more than 17,000 volumes were handed over for home-trade purposes. In 1983—in order to facilitate marketing— a second-hand bookshop was opened in co-operation with the Book Trade Company. The holdings of the Storage Library, nov being organized, increased by 26,000 volumes. Development, automation. Relations with international information systems The organization of an independent Section for Development in 1982 brought a radical change in activities connected with development and automation. The team, working independently of the library's organization, will not only participate in the development of the Széchényi Library, but it is also going to assume responsibilities for the design and development of automated systems throughout the Hungarian library system. 92