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

CENTRAL SERVICES Duplicate Copies Centre and Storage Library In recent years the Duplicate Copies Centre and Storage Library operated in three places: two basements in Budapest and in a locality in the vicinity of Budapest. In the two local stores documents temporarily not needed by the national library were preserved in crates, while the more remote store was used to preserve and temporarily store the surplus copies of several libraries. Library staff carried out active work in this latter store. Their task was to place the incoming material and organize the sale of surplus copies. Lists of surplus copies, generally classified by subject, stating the prices were drawn up and these were sent out to other libraries, antiquarians and institutions. In 1997 an auction was also held. Up to the end of 1998 a free list was also issued: these items of lesser value were given free of charge to anyone requesting them. The books known to have been the property of the churches were returned to them (approx. 10,000 volumes over the five years), and they also helped to meet requests received through the international exchange service. Interlibrary loans and information on location Interlibrary lending began its work in 1994 still using the old methods: meeting requests received from abroad wherever possible and forwarding abroad requests made in Hungary. The number of requests received from abroad fell steadily and could be met from the holdings of the special libraries and the national library. Half of the requests made in Hungary could also be met from locations inside the country. In 1994 it became clear that there was a demand for American documents and so the library joined the OCLC/PRISM interlibrary loan system. From the following years, the German, Scandinavian, Dutch and British systems also became available, so that by 1998 all the 3872 requests addressed abroad were met, with the original document or a copy. The greatest number of documents came from Germany (50%), the second biggest partner was Great Britain, while the USA, Switzerland, Sweden and others also met Hungarian requests. There was a conflict between reports and requirements in the section handling the Union Catalogue of Books. At the same time, while libraries acquired fewer and fewer foreign works due to lack of funds, research demands increased. While in 1993 155,942 cards were sent from 179 libraries, in 1998 106 libraries sent 100,000 reports on cards or disc. Material was received on electronic media from 1995 and the Card Duplication Group undertook to produce the cards to be placed in the catalogue. In this way, earlier reports could also be included in the records. It is interesting to note that from 1996 there was also a decline in requests for information on locations, from 20,000 to around 16,700. From 1998 the purchase of two new machines enabled the section to access the machines of libraries not able to report on cards; it also became possible to receive location requests by e-mail. The Union Catalogue of Foreign Periodicals was still working in the frame of two organizational units in 1994. In that same year the National Periodicals Database was moved from an external institution into the library building where in place of the previous offline system, an online data entry system was created. In addition to the online processing, the same search surface as that of the CD-ROM is used for verifying in the local network of the National Periodicals Database. While the number of reports steadily declined due to the reduced orders, new reports counterbalanced the loss. As a result, around 40,000-45,000 location codes a year were entered into the database. There was a decline in the number of requests for information due to the fact that it became easy to search the database on the internet web surface. From an initial annual volume of 10,000 current and 1600 retrospective requests, by 1998 only 5313 current and 918 retrospective requests were received through various channels. The National Periodicals Database and the Retrospective Editorial Office of the Union Catalogue of Foreign Periodicals continued their activity within the frame of a single department in 1995. 192