Fráter Jánosné: Részletek az Akadémiai Könyvtár történetéből 1865–1875 (A MTAK kiadványai 45. Budapest, 1965)
vaulted room measuring 41 X 10 and 5x6 metres was divided in the middle by a double colonnade and containsapproximately 1820 metres of shelving. One hall and another storage room open into a courtyard too. The arrangement of the Library was done in the following way: place was marked on the shelves for the individual subjects, then on the basis of the new system of classification every book was classified and placed on the shelf with consideration of its format. Then the abbreviated subject numbers were written into the books, as well as that of the format and the number of the book in the subject system. All these were written on various coloured, square labels which were then glued on to the books. (Numbering begins anew with each order.) The last two phases of the work were entering the books in an inventory and compiling an alphabetical card catalogue. The librarians concentrated on those subjects which the readers were most interested in. While all this was taking place the Library was closed and only at the end of 1868 did it open to the general public. This relatively long period was caused by the lack of staff. The entire work was practically done by P. Hunfalvy and J. Budenz who received help only in preparing the fields of natural science from F. Rómer, the curator of manuscripts. P. Hunfalvy made several attempts to increase the staff which brought about some results only at the end of 1868. In 1865 the Academy formed a nine-member Library Committee which was supposed to handle the affairs of the Library. This committee set up the rules and regulations of the Library in five sections. H. CIRCULATION OF THE LIBRARY, 1870-1875. There are no minutes or general reports from this period on the attendance of the reading room. There are only two data on circulation. In 1869 altogether 6,838 readers, while in 1870, 7,232 readers attended the Academy Library. There is one record of borrowed books from 1870 until September 30, 1875, and one record of manuscripts lent, from 1866 to 1871. From these the circulation of the Library can be estimated. This will be analyzed from two angles: 1. circulation according to subject (including the number of times lent and the number of volumes); 2. nemes of borrowers and, whenever possible, the extent to which the Academy Library helped them in whatsoever work they did. The analysis shows that during the treated period 304 individuals borrowed 3540 volumes on 2036 occasions, which involved three opening hours per day for 195 days yearly, during the treated period. The annual average is 51 borrowers, 590 volumes and the annual average of books borrowed is 11.5 volumes per person. Together with the attendance of the reading room, there were 36 visitors per day, and three volumes lent. The most requested books belonged to subject IV (language and the science of literature) and manuscripts which comprised up to 36.55% of the total books lent. Among this Greek and Latin language and literary science added up to 15.68% of this figure, while Hungarian language and literary scholarship 46.75%. The next is history with 21.46%, followed by various newspapers and periodicals (10.3%), and the fourth was law and political science with 5.64%. The circulation of the academy libirary is considerable even in comparison to the two other major libraries of Budapest. 54