Nagy Gyula: A múzeum szolgálatában (A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 10. Békéscsaba, 1986)

I SERVED IN THE MUSEUM Four decades in the museum of Orosháza /A SUMMARY/ At the beginning of the book Jenő Barabás, professor of the Faculty of Ethnography of the Eötvös Lóránd University of Budapest, one of the excellent representatives of Hungarian ethnography, an old friend and coworker of the author greets Gyula Nagy on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The professor greets the reader as well and presents him the author's lifework. He emphasizes that the reader holds a book of specific genre in hand. It the present volume a history of a museum, a presentation of a researcher's career, a handbook of museology, a reminiscence or a book published in honour of Gyula Nagy on occasion of his birthday ? None of them and each. The author presents the life and the four-deca de development of the oneman museum of Orosháza. During these four decades in the little town in the Southern part of the Hungarian Plain a single obsessed expert represented the whole museum. He was himself the explorer and collector of the historical values of his surroundings, a scientific researcher and a lecturer, often a photographer and a restorer and a doorkeeper etc. ,,How could he write the history of the museum without speaking of himself since his name became inseparable from the collection for several decades." According to the description of Jenő Barabás the author is the creator and editor and spreader of several books of esteemed value — no doubt a person better than average. What he began he managed to finish. Concerning the birth of book the intention of closing the life-work had an important role. He states that many can read it with moral. The readers can make themselves familiar with the history of the museum of Orosháza, with the author's activity, his struggles and joys. They can also be introduced to museology, they can derive exemplary labour ethics and vocation consciousness and an important way of the fulfilments of the commitments for the people: parochialism. 191