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

In the case of our only specialized bibliography, The Bibliography of Hungarian Literature and Literary Studies the material covering the period from 1980 to 1983 has been published, as well as the cumulative index for 1976—1980, and the retrospective bibliography for 1971—1975. Reader's services, information activity Under the conditions in the Castle building many changes have occurred in this area of work too since this department has been most strongly affected by the improvement in external conditions. By 1986 the old and new staff members had already gained experience but there still remaind much to do in the following years too. Workers in this department had a great deal of work, ranging from setting up the new catalogues and providing information booklets to placing orientation signs for readers, in order to ensure the conditions for sound and calm work. On the basis of practical experiences more comfortable facilities were provided for readers by setting up the separate newspaper reading room and reserving a separate room for the use of current periodicals. Under the improved conditions there was a great increase in the number of readers. In 1985 the number of registered readers was less than 14,000 but by around 1990 this figure had reached 21,000—22,000 a year. Each reader visited the library an average of five times a year. There was a great increase in the number of college and university students who were able to study and read here in peace, making free use of the extremely valuable reference library of 70,000 volumes placed in the reading rooms. This facilitated the work of all visitors, since in many cases it meant eliminating the time required to obtain books from the stores. The strong increase in the number of university students had an unfavourable influence on the use of the library by researchers who did not find the silence and calm among the young users that they require for their work. As a result their numbers began to decline and they tended to prefer the reading rooms of the special collections which provide good conditions. Observing this tendency, the library will make efforts to change this situation and the unfavourable composition of readers, restoring its scholarly character in this field too. There has been very dynamic development in expansion of the means available to the reference (and reader's) service, naturally leading to a substantial rise in the level of information. Besides numerous other factors, an outstanding role was played in this by the possibility of using the computer databases in giving information and compiling written references. This department has been able to draw not only on our own records and reference library but, joining in the international information system, it was able to provide information on world standard in response to queries. The central reader's service gave an annual average of 600 answers in writing to queries, approximately half of them from abroad. The reference activity of the special collections naturally referred to their special fields. They helped researchers who came here from abroad and also provided exhaustive written information in reply to many queries. Protection of the holdings As a consequence of the intensive use of books and periodicals (approx. 1.2 million documents were moved for use by readers or librarians) and because parts of the holdings has to be moved due to lack of storage, the physical state of the collection naturally deteriorated. This was even more the case for newspapers and old, unique documents. The library therefore devoted and continues to devote ever greater attention to protection of the holdings. Outstanding results were obtained in this area over the period concerned. Besides attempting as far as possible to bind the stock and repair any damage found, the library has always laid great stress on the question of rescuing older newspapers, partly by recording them on microfilm and partly by the use of methods which belong in the category of restoration procedures. Of course, such a degree of restoration of the original material could only be achieved for the most valuable serials (the most important Hungarian papers, decaying Hungarian newspapers published abroad). The two forms of preservation frequently brought results when used in combination: before recording on microfilm most of the newspapers were in need of repair or even restoration. 82