AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1963-1964. Budapest (1966)

I. A könyvtár életéből - Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár működése 1963—1964-ben - Report on the activity of the National Széchényi Library in 1963—1964

II. Interlibrary Services By its various services the National Széchényi Library contributes to the work of the home and foreign libraries. By contacting entreprises, offices and factories, the circle of those delivering depository copies has further widened. Thus other libraries enjoying the delivery of depository copies through the national library will receive publications which are difficult to acquire. The backlog from 1962 in arranging the cards was cleared away in the Division of the National Union Catalogue and the time needed for processing the arriving material was reduced from 3—7 to 2—3 months. After thorough and far-reaching analysis and experiments we began the reconstruction of the Union Catalogue. The periodicals of the year 1962 had been included in the Union Catalogue of Foreign Periodicals preserved in Hungarian libraries. (50.000 data.) As regards books the information given on basis of the Union Catalogue increased but it decreased concerning periodicals. The monthly „Central List of Foreign Books Acquired by Hungarian Libraries" has been continuously published in two fields of learning. (Social and natural science.) In 1963 and 1964 nearly 100.000 units each were listed in these series. The number of the subscribers to this periodical incrsased considerably. The 1964 List of the current foreign periodicals to which Hungarian libraries subscribe was edited. The compilation of the retrospective bibliography of the foreign periodicals in Hungarian libraries has been going on at a comparatively slow pace. The number of publications exchanged with foreign libraries by the International Exchange Service kept on increasing. The balance of exchange with the partners was stabilized. The further increasement of interest for the loan of publications with other libraries is noteworthy. From Hungary 15 656 and from abroad 2 014 requests arrived and 90 per cent of them were fulfilled. The activity of our Book Distributing Division was focussed on taking over and processing the surplus material of the public libraries. 51422 units were distributed among home libraries, 6257 volumes were used for the purpose of international exchanges and 42833 were sold abroad in 1963 and 1964. III. Administration The most important problems to be solved in the library, including the tasks concerning the new home of the library, were discussed in the sessions of the management. Spotlight should be thrown on the most possible mobilization of the library's forces, on the centralization of the work of each organizational unit and on the carrying out of the preparatory tasks with the utmost care and attention. Several steps have been taken to modernize the organization of our library. Among others two separate departmens have been formed to carry out the proccessing work and to perform public services. The works of the national bibliographies so far decentralized were united in the Bibliographical Divison. Observing this point the administration group was strengthened and changed to administration division. As the works of planning and execution of our new building have been going on, the tasks of the library had to be laid down in a new form and their performance became urgent. We strove to make clear the questions of basic importance concerning the activity of a modern national library and our leading collaborators dealt with the details in a series of studies. Naturally, the preparatory works required a rise in the number of the staff. This problem was solved by regrouping the staff as far as it was possible but a considerable staff increase is necessary in the future. One of our most important tasks is the schooling of our future collaborators: in 1963 10 and in 1964 19 young people who left secondary school were admitted to our course providing qualification of medium level. 3 Évkönyv 33