AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1978. Budapest (1980)

IV. Könyvtörténeti és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok - Kovács Ilona: Adatok az amerikai magyar könyvtári gyűjteményekről - Some data on American Hungarian Library collections

the country of their origin. The development is based on the state and conditions of the American library scene, on efforts of the ethnic group made in developing Hungarian collections needed, on the availability of information about the publications of the country of their origin and on the availability of the books published there. Relations of the East Eauropean and Hungarian library collections The Hungarians are one of the East Eauropean ethnic groups in the US. Dimensions of the East European library collections in 1960 according to M. J. Ruggles and V. Mostecky were as follows: 1,603,860 monographs, 69,932 periodical titles, 4,656 newspaper titles. Out of this 78.032 monographs (4.9%), 3,692 periodical titles (5.3%) and 174 newspaper titles (3.7%) belong to the Hungarian collections only publications from East Eauropean countries are included in the data. In 1974 according to Paul L. Horecky the East Eauropean material consisted of some 1,646,670 volumes out of this 214,801 was material concerning Hungarians. The Hungarian followed the Russian, Polish and Yugoslavian libraries in ranking of the East Eauropean collections. As regards the subject content of the East European collections the order was history, social sciences, literature, it was followed by sciences, linguistics and the arts. In Hungarian collections came first fine arts, history, politics, economics, law, medical sciences, geology, biology, folklore, literature and linguistics. In 1960 60 to 90% of the East European material was distributed geographically among 5 libraries of four big cities (New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Boston). The distribution of the Hungarian material showed almost the same pattern (Washington, New York, Cleveland, Boston, New Brunswick). According to the type of libraries the distribution was the following: university libraries owned in the largest proportion East European material (30%). It was followed by special libraries (30.5%), federal libraries (25%) and public libraries (12%). The order regarding the Hungarian collections was: federal libraries, university libraries and public libraries. It shows that as a motive in founding these collections research, studies and reading interest of the local population plaid a role but in further development the local needs and funds had less importance. Gharactereistics of Hungarian collections Number of the collections

: no comprehensive list of the Hungarian collections has been found. In different lists (by Joseph SZÉPLAKI, Tibor SZY, M. J. RUGGLES and V. MOSTECKY, Albert TEZLA, Paul L. HORECKY) all together 168 name of libraries having Hungarian stock were listed. No libraries of churches and Hungarian associations were included. Out of the 165 libraries about 30 have remarkable collections. Size of the Hungarian collections: among the libraries listed in 1972 by Paul HORECKY 17 have a colection above 1,000 volumes, 8 of them have more than 10,000 volumes. Their ranking is as followes: Librarv of Congress 55,000, Columbia University 32-33,000, New York Public Library 20,000, University of Illinois 15,000, Cleveland Public Library 12,500, Harvard University 12,000, Dumbarton Oaks 10,000, University of California Los Angeles 10,000. Since 1968 their development has been affected by funds provided by Public Law 480, National Program for Acquisition and Cataloging, Higher Education Act, Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Types of the Hungarian collections: University Libraries among all types of libraries the university libraries have most of the remarkable Hungarian collections. As regards their history the four oldest are the Harvard, Indiana; Pittsburg and Princeton libraries. Out of them Harvard and Indiana have outstanding collection even today. Among all the universities Columbia has the largest collection developed since 1954 as a result of establishing the Department of Uralic and Altaic Languages and since 1958 the beginning of a teaching program for the Hungarian language. Public libraries: the Hungarian collections in public libraries are less developed than in the university libraries. Their basic function to serve the reading interest of the ethnic community and provide information concerning their history and present status. So they contain less reference material and rather popular reading material, more books than journals. Their development was affected strongest by demographic factors. Where the largest Hungarian ethnic groups can be found there are the strongest and most balenced developed Hungarian collections: in New York 617 *