AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1976-1977. Budapest (1979)

I. Az OSZK 1976-1977-ben - Somkuti Gabriella: Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár 1976—1977. évi működése - The Activities of the National Széchényi Library in the Years 1976—1977

The Union Catalogue of Foreign Periodicals contains about 60,000 titles. During the period covered it entered 150,000 additional data into its registers. A location list entitled Current Foreign Periodicals in the Hungarian Libraries, 1974/75 came out in 1976, which gives information on about 16,500 titles. Work on a retrospective location list of foreign periodicals in the Hungarian libraries continued. The Inter-Library Loan Service tried to speed up work by reorganizing its internal administration in order to meet the increasing amount of demands better. Steps were taken for the decentralization of loans (and borrowings) from and to abroad, which will also contribute to a more rapid service, to the settling of the requests. The turnover of the service in 1976 increased by 4.7 per cent and by another 9.3 per cent in 1977. During these two years the International Exchange Service received 41,000 books, 21,000 official prints, and 3,600 volumes of periodical publications. About one fifth of this material was kept by the Széchényi Library, the rest was distributed between the relevant special libraries. The Service had good results in obtaining documents of Hungarian concern (Hungarica). The Excess Copies Centre forwarded about 47,000 library units to 125 Hungarian libraries in the two years. The number of works made available for international exchange and foreign sale was about 10,000. The collection of the material for the national storage library was started. A new task was accapted by the Library in the decision to set up a national register of all the libraries of Hungary and to keep it up-to-date. Planning, development, computerization On the basis of the ten-year long term development plan of the library (1971 — 1980) the operative plan for 1976 — 1980 was prepared. For the same period a five-year plan for research and scholarly activity was also drawn up. 1976 was the year when the new Library Law was enacted, which assigns important tasks to the national library. In connection with the work on a machine-produced national bibliography we have started to tackle the problem of the central distribution of catalogue-cards. The records made for the national bibliography will serve as basis for the descriptions. There are experiments also for the current registration of periodical publications by computer. The elaboration of development plans will be greatly facilitated by the results of the large-scale survey carried on in the library in 1976—1977 by outside experts. It has made a critical evaluation of the traditional work processes of the Library from the perspective of overall mechanization and computerization. Participation in international information systems. International relations Our active participation in the International Scientific and Technological Information System of the C.M.E.A. (Comecon) countries continued. Members of our staff made an important contribution especially in the field of theory and methodology (e.g. standardization, communication format). We have met our obligations under the Automated Registration system for Periodical Publications (ASRPI) and took part in the further development of the system. Our relations with the international centre of the ISDS (International Serials Data System) in Paris have become closer. The Library acts as national centre for the ISDS and regularly sends the bibliographical data of the Hungarian periodical publications to Paris. We are also directly involved in the management of the system: a staff-member of the Library was elected member of the Administratice Council of the ISDS in 1976. In 1977 Hungary (represented by the National Széchényi Library) officially joined the ISDS. We have also joined the programme of the Universal Bibliographic Control. An expert from our Library took part in the ISBD/S Working Group and attended its 1976 Brussels and 1977 Lausanne session. We sent two representatives to the 1977 Paris session of the International Congress on National Bibliographies. Previous to that experts of the socialist countries on national bibliographies had a meeting in 69