AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1961-1962. Budapest (1963)

II. A könyvtári munka módszertani kérdéseiről - Haraszthy Gyula: Az országos gyarapodási jegyzékek külföldön és Magyarországon - National Lists of Acquisitions in foreign countries and Hungary

National Lists oj Acquisitions in foreign countries and Hungary GY. HARASZTHY The st udy discusses questions pertaining to central lists of book acquisitions in a country. In introducing the subject, certain problems relating to matters of principle are clarified: a) Functions of such national lists in co-ordinating information services, union catalogues, inter-library loans, cataloguing, acquisitions, bibliographical assistance, unification of cataloguing in general; b) role of such lists in the development of inter-library co-operation. Following the introduction, the most urgent problems in connection with central lists •of acquisitions published abroad are outlined, according to the following aspects

: Functions and types of central lists of acquisitions

; Methods of editing; Relationship of the lists to the union catalogue; Number of contributing libraries, questions regarding efficiency of lists

; Arrangement of lists, number of series, systems of classification, periodicity; Problems concerning bibliographical entries and their translations, number of titles •contributed, technical problems, questions of reproducing. The problems are discussed on the basis of observations made with central lists of acquisitions published by the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, German Democratic Republic, German Federal Republic, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Rumania, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States of America. The second part of the study deals with the situation in Hungary. After outlining matters of principle (basic functions of national lists of acquisitions), a brief historical survey is given, starting with the central lists of acquisitions first published in 1926, and continuing with describing the activities exercised in the country in recent years with a view to creating new, up-to-date central (national) lists of acquisitions. By the end of the fifties the necessity of publishing such lists in Hungary, owing to the following important viewpoints, was generally acknowledged: |j 1. Necessity of informing scientific researchers and experts about newly acquired foreign technical books; 2. Completing of the Union Catalogue (functioning as a division of the National Széchényi Library, Budapest, Hungary) through addition of titles and locations of these important foreign books

; 3. Co-ordinating the acquisitions policy of the Hungarian scientific libraries; 4. Developing inter-library co-operation in general; 5. Simplifying and rationalizing information services through publication of one central list of acquisitions instead of the numerous lists individually published by libraries and library networks. All these questions took shape and were discussed by the competent authorities of librarianship already in 1959. In 1960 planning and organizing by experts were begun; the most important points

: drawing up of rules for abbreviated entries and classification, reorganizing the symbol-system of the Hungarian libraries, establishing the category of titles to be made subject of reporting by contributing libraries, technical experiments, etc. The first lists were published in October 1961; after three months of experimenting, national lists of acquisitions with exact, up-to-date information have been appearing ever since January 1, 1962. Salient data of the lists, as apparent from the first complete annual volume, are as follows: The lists are edited in the National Union Catalogue Division of the National Széchényi Library, a separate editing staff is attending to the work. Information about titles and locations is gained from the following sources: a) reports by libraries regularly submitted for inclusion in the Union Catalogue

; b) catalogue entries centrally set up by the State Book Distributing Enterprise, which is the trade centre of every book coming from western countries. 160