Csapodi, Csaba: Conservation of the Manuscript and Old Book Collections at the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Methods and Results. 1949–1964 (A MTAK kiadványai 44. Budapest, 1965)

trips abroad and at home.

2 Of course, Sasvári's considerable effort was but a small part of the total work to be completed, but it was a step in the right direction. The idea of a similar solution did not even occur to the Academy Library where, because of the increasing lag behind the development of national administration, the inadequate staff, lack of space, increasing number of unbound books in comparison to the new acquisitions, the initial steps toward conservation could not even be taken. On the other hand, careless handling, frequent rearrangement due to the small and insufficient storage space, the wartime packing and unpacking, led to the damage of more and more books in the valuable collection. In 1949 the reorganization of the Academy, by providing more financial resources, meant a decisive change not only for the entire Library but also for conservation. The manuscript collection of the Library and, from 1954, the collection of old books which was formed in that year, benefitted from conservation. In the following we would like to report on the conservation work of these two collections during the last fifteen years.

3 The tried end tested principles and methods of this work and the practical results achieved shall be introduced. This report will probably be of use to those libraries where the collections are in a state similar to our fifteen years ago and the limited financial resources do not permit the relatively expensive research requiring large investments and staff to be carried out.

4 Equipment, Storage Until 1949 the equipment of the manuscript collection were a large room, six metres high, badly illuminated, closely lined with simple open shelves to the ceiling which were tightly packed' with codices and other bound manu2 SASVÁRI Dezső: Kódexek és régi könyvek restaurálása az Országos Széchényi Könyvtárban. (The Restoration of Codices and Old Books in the National Széchényi Library.) Magyar Könyvszemle 1941. pp. 180 —182. Also: Régi papirosok és kötések restaurálása. (The Restoration of Old Paper and Binding). Loc. cit. 1941. pp. 395 — 397; Poriadásnak induló kéziratok és könyvlapok restaurálása az Orsz. Széchényi Könyvtárban (The Restoration of Crumbling Manuscripts and Book Pages in the National Széchényi Library). Loc. cit. 1942. pp. 426 — 428. See also: Régi bőrkötésű könyvek restaurálása (The Restoration of Old Leather-Bound Books). Loc. cit. 1943. pp. 435 — 437. 3 Concerning the conservation work in the manuscript collection until 1957 see BERLÁSZ J

enô : Az Akadémiai Könyvtár kézirattárának át,alakulása (The Transformation of the Manuscript Collection of the Academy Library) Budapest, 1957. (Publications of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, No. 4. Extr. from Magyar Könyvszemle. Regarding the first three years of conservation work done in the collection of old books see CSAPODI Csaba: Könyvkonzerválás és restaurálás a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvtárában) Book Conservation and Restoration in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). Budapest 1958. (Publications of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences No. 10. Extr. from Magyar Könyvszemle.) 4 Our purpose was not to publish a systematic manual on the general problems of conservation. Tibor TOMBOR'S comprehensive work was written in consideration of a tremendous foreign literature: A könyvtári állomány védelme. A könyvhigiénia alapjai (Conservation in Libraries. Fundamentals of Book Care). Budapest, 1961. (Publication 10 of the Orsz. Könyvtárügyi Tanács.) In the present study the author attempted to give only an entirely practical report of the actual work done on one definite collection. 6