AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1994-1998. Budapest (2000)

I. Az OSZK 1994-1998-ban - Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár kiadványai 1994-1998 - The Activity of the National Széchényi Library in the Years 1994-1998

THE ACTIVITY OF THE NATIONAL SZÉCHÉNYI LIBRARY IN THE YEARS 1994-1998 The Hungarian national library lived through one of its most difficult periods in the last five years. The rigours of the economic environment considerably added to the librarys problems. The steady inflation and consequently the inadequacy of budget funds - which caused especially big losses in the field of acquisitions - the expectation that the number of employees be reduced, and at the same time the necessity for modernization and development all faced the library with a big task. State support received on an ad hoc basis, grants, donations and the understanding attitude of our partners made it possible to overcome the difficulties and maintain continuous operation. Despite the circumstances, while maintaining continuous operation the library achieved substantial results in a number of areas but elsewhere suffered irreplaceable losses. The work of rescuing the institution was assisted by a body composed of the heads of departments and a number of special (scientific, collection development) committees, the NEKTÁR and the DOB1S/LIBIS application council. The most important task of the Administrative Department, in addition to drawing up the annual work plans and reports, was to ensure operation. In addition to its usual tasks, the Personnel Department faced the big work of introducing a new remuneration system and the bitter task of handling the technical side of the reduction of the workforce due to economic constraints. Between the end of 1994 and the end of 1998 the library shed 232 workers, bringing the total number employed down from 885 to 647. The most difficult task naturally fell on the Financial Department. The library carried out a number of official tasks entrusted to it by the state. These included providing protection for books of value in Hungary, preventing them from being taken out of the country, in the case of items put up for auction and individual export. It also had the task of providing methodological assistance for the work of ecclesiastical libraries, of protecting their holdings through the work of the national librarys specialized departments, and editing a series of publications serving to present the values of the ecclesiastical libraries. It also represented Hungarian •library interests at the Russian-Hungarian restitution negotiations. Developing the collection, building up the holdings Extraordinary tasks: Besides the increasingly difficult task of ensuring daily operation, it also had to cope with two extraordinary tasks: transforming the librarys structure to meet modern requirements (1), and organizing the first revision of holdings since the move to the new building and carrying out this revision in as much of the holdings as possible (2). (1) The preparations for restructuring began in 1996 with the help of English experts and were given final form in 1998 with the contribution of an internal committee of experts. The deadline for introduction was July 1, 1998. The aim was to group all related work within a general department, to bring together all work related to periodicals in the frame of a department, to create network links for the computer system, and with all this, to bring the library up to the level of international professional requirements. The preparatory work for revision of the holdings (2) took a year; this was followed by revision of the special collections, the auxiliary libraries and the books kept in the large stores. The work was carried out with the most exacting standards and utmost precision, aiming not only to make an inventory of the material in the collections, but also to correct any errors that had been made in processing, ranging from determining the number of copies to recording the place of storage. All this was processed by computer, creating full harmony between the stores and the catalogues. The sections in charge of acquisitions were hardest hit by the steady deterioration of the economic situation. The sum available for this purpose declined or stagnated, while the price of documents rose and despite all the economies made, these conflicting trends created an almost insoluble problem. A great part of the subscriptions to foreign periodicals had to be cancelled and it was impossible to ensure adequate funds even for the purchase of the most essential books. Library staff were unable to attend auctions and the purchase of numerous Hungarica items had to be renounced. 187