Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

Bács-Kiskun Megyei Levéltár (Bács-Kiskun County Archives)

Kecskemét város története vols I to IV, oklevéltárral (History of Kecskemét City vols I to IV, with documents). Kecskemét 1860-1866. — Katalin B. MIKES - Sándor SZABÓ: így'kezdődött (So it was begun). Kecskemét, 1971. Our special library totals about 9000 volumes. It is not due to a conscious and continuous collecting activity, so only the local press material is of real value. The research room is open from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 0.30 p.m. Tibor IVÁNYOSI SZABÓ BÉKÉS MEGYEI LEVÉLTÁR (BÉKÉS COUNTY ARCHIVES) 5701 GYULA, Petőfi Sándor tér 3. (Pf. 17.) Tel. 33 Director: Dr. Ferenc SZABÓ The Archives has a department at Békés (5630 BÉKÉS Petőfi u. 4. Tel. 92.), competent for Békés city and the surrounding localities. The Archives is based on the historical archival material of Békés county. After the expulsion of the Turks (1695), the county was reorganized in 1715. We have the first dates on the existence of archives from 1730. Between 1732 and 1744 it was located in the medieval castle of Gyula, later in the county headquarters. In 1797 the county employed an archivist on a temporary basis. Since then it always had an archivist, occupied mainly with administrative and registrar's duties, up to 1950. The archivists made a basic arrangement, especially between 1797 and 1828, producing an alphabetical index to the whole material of their times, existing even to-day. As early as in the 1840s the location of the ever growing archival material presented a grave problem, this is why in the 1860s and later in 1897 and 1911 a largescale selection was made. In 1872, after the establishment of law courts independent of administration, the archives handed over the post1850 judicial records, among them the bulk of the urbarial acts, to the Gyula court of law, being totally annihilated there. In 1904 the Archives settled to new, more copious premises, the records