AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1986-1990. Budapest (1994)

I. Az OSZK 1986-1990-ben - Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár működése 1986-1990-ben - The Activity of the National Széchényi Library in the Years 1986-1990

THE ACTIVITY OF THE NATIONAL SZÉCHÉNYI LIBRARY IN THE YEARS 1986-1990 The National Széchényi library opened in its new building in the Buda Castle palace in early April 198S. After overcoming the difficulties of the first year it was able to begin substantive development work — along the lines that had already been traced earlier — under the management of the new director, Gyula Juhász, academician. The outstanding historian brought with him the attitude needed to direct the national library and at the same time he urged the wider application of modern technical solutions, above all computerization, creating the conditions for the integration of the institution into the international information system. To attain this goal he had to carry out numerous organizational changes with the help of the library's specially trained management personnel and its team of experts. Numerous changes of personnel were required and new people also had to be hired. Unfortunately, the economic conditions did not favour the financing of modernization and development. But the library received support from the Ministry of Education, various Hungarian institutions, Hungarians living abroad and even from foundations (Soros, Volkswagen, Mellon, etc.) for the fullest possible attainment of the goals set. The first two years in the castle building were still largely devoted to planning the reorganization and testing the ideas in practice, but in the course of 1988 the first steps were taken towards reshaping the organization and the execution of part of the tasks in a new set-up and in a new way. In the following we report on the work of the library and the nature of these changes. Aquisitions In the period from 1986 to 1990 it was unfortunately precisely the field of fundamental importance to all collections that was placed in a difficult situation. This can be attributed to a number of causes. There was an exceptionally sharp rise in the prices not only of foreign books but also of books published in Hungary. While in 1986 the average book price was 754 HUF, by 1990 this had risen to 1365 HUF. As a result, however much help the institution received to maintain the level of purchases, it was unable to do so and the quantity of books purchased — with the exception of foreign purchases — fell by 45% between 1986 and 1990. The library, of course, received Hungarian publications through the deposit copy service. As a result of the change of political regime it became possible to publish many books which could not appear earlier. A great number of new publishers flooded the book market with important works and books of more dubious quality, but unfortunately, they quite frequently forgot their obligation to deliver deposit copies or were not even aware of this regulation. As a result, gaps arose in this respect too since it was often no longer possible to obtain these works subsequently. One example is sufficient to give an idea of the great increase in the number of publications: in 1989 the number of periodicals received as deposit copies rose from the usual 150—200 titles (or title changes) a year to 786. International exchange played a big and important role during this period: with its help we were able to find a satisfactory solution in particular for acquiring Hungarian-related material published abroad. Since more than half of the library's new acquisitions of foreign books and periodicals still come through this channel, we must further improve the efficiency of this activity in the future. Despite every effort, purchases of books and periodicals fell by a total of 26% between 1986 and 1990. The special collections expanded their holdings with highly valuable new additions. Unfortunately, these departments were not able to obtain everything they would have liked either: the supply grew steadUy but funds available enabled them to acquire only the most important documents. (The list given in the annexe to the Hungarian text contains our most important purchases.) Over the period concerned the library acquired 124,000 books, 37,000 annual volumes of periodicals and 444,000 documents in the special collections, representing a combined increase of around 600,000 units. With this the library's total stock amounts to 6,978.430 units. 79