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

Computerized processing has brought a big change in the work of the Hungarian National Bibliography. Repertory of Serials. Following the technical difficulties of the first years, the IKER database was completed in 1996. This contains all the items that appeared in earlier fascicles from 1993. The database is accessible on the National Széchényi Librarys internal network and so in the future it will offer the catalogue of journal articles built up by the Reading Service since 1946. The number of items in the IKER database has risen to 78,989. Within the frame of activity related to catalogue publications and special bibliographies, work has continued on modern Latin manuscripts, although progress is unfortunately very slow in the absence of a suitably trained expert. Work was carried out on the second volume (Land sketch plans) of Manuscript Maps in the Map Collection of the National Széchényi Library, and is now approaching completion. The last completed volume of the Bibliography of Hungarian Literature and Literary Studies was that of 1989, but due to financial reasons it has not yet been published. The material for subsequent years is available and talks are being held on the possibility of continuing the series. It is a big result that the 1966-1970 volume containing the years missing from the series was published in 1996. Within the frame of the Catalogues of 16th century materials in collections in Hungary work continued on processing the printed materials on loan from the Episcopal Library of Székesfehérvár. Under the professional guidance of the editorial office, work is well advanced on processing the material of this period in four Budapest libraries too. Among the Retrospective national and Hungarica bibliographies, volume III of Early Printings from Hungary has been completed. It contains the bibliographic description and brief contents of close to a thousand printed works that appeared in Hungarian and in the territory of historical Hungary between 1636 and 1655. It is expected to appear in 2000. In 1996 volume III of Károly Szabo's Old Hungarian Library appeared, together with the Index covering the four fascicles of Supplements. Work continued on locating and recording unknown copies of Hungarica material prior to 1801. Data were collected in the territory of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Romania (Transylvania). The researchers found a great number of books. Work began in 1997 on locating works published abroad by Hungarian authors in foreign languages between 1712 and 1801, since there has not yet been a separate bibliography covering this area. Continuous work was done on data collection and editing the existing aids. The second volume of Hungarian Press Bibliography 1705-1849. Bibliography of Newspapers and Periodicals Published in Hungary in Hungarian and in Foreign Languages, and of Foreign Hungarica by Margit Busa, a work that fills a long-felt gap, appeared in 1997. After the appearance of the seven basic volumes, work on the retrospective national bibliography Hungarian Bibliography 1921-1944 continued with editing of the items containing the alphabetical index, using the database created for this purpose. Items (approx. 4000) not included in the seven basic volumes have also been collected for a supplement. Corrections (approx. 3000 items) have also been made to the titles already published. In 1998 volume III/A Primary and Secondary School Textbooks appeared as a supplement to volume III of Hungarian Bibliography 1921-1944, edited and published jointly with the National Library and Museum of Pedagogy. Circulation desk, Information Drawing on the experiences gained in the ten years since the move to the new building, the central reading service sections continued their work in the interest of readers. They increased the number of reading room places, created better conditions for researchers and attempted to improve their own work too. Around 200,000 people a year visit the big reading rooms where the books, periodicals and microfilms are available. A classification of readers show that the library was used mainly by university students, in steadily growing numbers. Humanities students are justified in favouring the national library because it is here that they find all the documents they need, but the presence of students from other faculties is not justified since they can find the material they require in the special libraries. 190