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

I. A könyvtár életéből - Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár működése 1961-1962-ben - Report on the activity of the National Széchényi Library in 1961 and 1962

Report on the activity of the National Széchényi Library in 1961 and 1962 Only one yearbook was published for the period 1961—1962, accordingly the activity exercised by the Library in these two years is described together. In both years the National Library was able to cope with its manyfold tasks successfully. Almost 300,000 bibliographical units were acquired, 160,000 readers were served with 1,210.000 items, nation-wide services were operated, bibliographies and other learned material published, etc. Besides fulfilling actual plans, numerous innovations were carried out and many working processes renewed. As these two years brought the Library closer to the time when it was to move into its new home, a part of the former royal castle in the fortress of Buda, it became apparent that old working methods should be abandoned and modern ones introduced, and that serious preparatory work should be done, such as building up of new catalogues, establishing of a new large open-shelf reading-room reference library, working out new storage methods, etc. Unfortunately, owing to shortage of staff and storage area, only modest progress could be made during the two years under report. However, many other new achievements and improvements can be registered, some details of which are outlined as follows. Acquisitions 157,000 bibliographical units were added to the Library's collections in 1961, 170,000 in 1962, the main source, as in the past, having been the legal copyright deposits (about 66%), the remainder having come from purchase, gifts and exchanges. About 50% of the additions were posters, small-prints and the like, the acquired books were 53,000 volumes in 1961 and 43,000 volumes in 1962. In 1962 the number of manuscripts acquired was doubled. Among the new additions to the Library's collection there were 11 incunables, about 200 16th century books and numerous other rare or old books, periodicals, as well as various kinds of printed works (music, maps, etc.). In general the acquisition work was further improved

; compared with past years more Hungarica were acquired and many gaps could be filled with regard to material from the neighbouring countries lacking from our collections. The two-copy system of legal deposit was restricted to one copy for material of minor importance, the registration of incoming material was completely reorganized. Cataloguing According to the new system introduced in 1960 the legal deposit copies surrendered to the Library were catalogued by the Bibliographical Division, the rest by the Processing Division. Working methods were improved by the latter division, inasmuch as two simultaneous processing systems were introduced: one for urgent, the other for less urgent material. The reorganization of the subject catalogue and the duplication of the alphabetical service catalogue did not proceed according to plan. We have not yet succeeded in introducing the planned change in the system of reproducing catalogue cards. However, numerous smaller improvements and more efficient working methods were introduced in the cataloguing and classifying work during the two years under report. The Music Division compiled a new catalogue to give urgently needed information about material in its holdings, the Division of Manuscripts continued to work on its union list of manuscripts and the catalogues of Latin and German manuscripts. The Union Catalogue of Hungarian Incunables was almost completed by the end of 1962. Bibliographical work The most important achievement in this field was the reorganization in the editing of the Hungarian National Bibliography: from 1961 onwards it was published every fortnight instead of once a month, as formerly. The Library took over the reproducing work itself. From among the retrospective national bibliographies, the Régi Magyar Könyvtár (Old Hungarian Library) covering the period 1473—1711 was enlarged by numerous recently found items, preparatory to re-editing the complete work. The period 1945—1960, though 34