STUDIES
Hungarian county libraries on the web. Changes over the past decade
PAYER Barbara
Between March and May 2013, the Hungarian Library Institute conducted a survey on the websites of county libraries– repeating a survey ten years earlier. In addition to general aspects, the analysis covered: 1) technical parameters (accessibility, navigation options, download speed, and use of social networking sites), 2) interactivity (forms, registration and search capabilities), 3) content (motto, updates, links, contact information, foreign-language version, style, spelling, and grammar), 4) design (overall image, graphic design, and typography), 5) notes and other features. In general, it was found that websites have developed a lot in the past ten years. Their common feature is that they now operate as portals; however, most of them do not take advantage of the potential of interactivity provided by the portal engines. Six web pages of the 19 county libraries, using different portal engines, were selected (Kecskemét, Pécs, Békéscsaba, Miskolc, Salgótarján and Veszprém), and presented in detail, following the above criteria, with screenshots as illustrations.
„Towards a digital Enlightenment”. The ARROW project and the Hungarian Na-tional Library (OSZK) – digitisation, copyright, innovative solutions
DANCS Szabolcs
The study describes the EU project ARROW (Accessible Registries of Rights Information and Orphan Works towards Europeana), the broader legal environment of library digitisation, and the proposals related to solving problems of rights management and digitisation. The key issues are the clarification of the copyright status of documents (e.g., whether they are orphan works), and whether the copies to be digitized held in public institutions are out-of-commerce copies indeed. EU Directive no. 2012/28/EU permitting the use of orphan works is also built on the ARROW principles. ARROW is a distributed network of important data sources (TEL, VIAF, BiP, RRO), which makes it possible to identify the legal status of individual works, licensing conditions, and orphan status. In 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding was accepted on the digitisation of out-of-commerce works held in public collections: passing co-operation on digitisation to the authority of collecting societies and to the agreement of contracting parties. The author reviews EU directives, the French and the British practice, and Hungarian legislation on orphan works. He presents the co-operation between ARROW and OSZK, as well as the relations with other projects (Linked Heritage, OSZK’s National Name Space and ELDORADO). In the future, there will be a need for reprographic societies (e.g., by applying text identifiers and providing International Standard Name Identifiers), for quality metadata for the book trade, for e-book catalogues, for copyright data, and for an optimisation of processes in the book industry, i.e., for a new, alternative strategy for library digitisation.
FROM OUR PAST
The role of Gyula Wlassics in Hungarian librarianship in the decades after the turn of 20th century. Part 3.
SIPOS Anna Magdolna
The final part of the study follows up on Wlassics’ activity on collection development in the years of World War I as head of the National Council of Museums and Libraries (MKOT). In the war period it was necessary to consolidate the structure of public collections. The task was commissioned to council member József Mihalik. His proposal included the transformation of the museum structure as well, in addition to settling supply issues. In these perilous times it was an important activity of MKOT to collect and compile book donations (two lists have been preserved). Wlassics’ cultural-political conviction remained unchanged: he found it most important to set up and develop public libraries. As a consequence of the war, the events in 1919 and the deteriorating economic conditions, the Council’s activity sphere has narrowed down by the 1920s. Some of its tasks have been transferred to the National Book Trade and Bibliography Centre (OKBK), while Wlassics himself was commissioned with other functions in the years of consolidation.
Máté Kovács’ unpresented lecture at the 38th IFLA Conference in Budapest (1972): „The system of LIS education
in Hungary”
Published and commented by Miklós BÉNYEI
In the summer of 1972, Budapest hosted the 38th IFLA Conference. The head of the Department of Library Science at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Máté Kovács was one of the organisers, and he was to read a paper at the meeting of the training committee. But, unfortunately, he unexpectedly passed away on the second day of the conference. The synopsis of his scheduled lecture, a typewritten draft, was recently published (in the journal Könyv, Könyvtár, Könyvtáros no. 11/2012). The full text has since then been found by chance and is published here for the first time with comments from Professor Miklós Bényei. In his paper Máté Kovács drew a comprehensive picture of the beginnings of library education in Hungary and described in detail the state of the art of the different training levels in the seventies, their curriculum, the programme of subjects and practices as well as the exam schedule. He also discussed the organisation of extension training and further tasks, in particular the importance of approximating the goal of training, curriculum, content, and methods to practice.
History of the „first”, unpublished annual of the Library of the Hungarian Parliament, Budapest
JÓNÁS Károly
The “first” annual of the Library of the Hungarian Parliament – which would have informed primarily about the new acquisitions of the library – was compiled in the early 1940s, but it remained unpublished because of the war. The annual was revised later for the centenary of the 1848 revolution, but has never been released, because its publication was forbidden during the inspection of the printing proof. The author reconstructs the birth of the yearbook, the circumstances of its compilation and the failure of publishing based on archival materials and the memories of former employees.
PERSONALIA
Remembering Miklós Fogarassy (1939–2013)
SKALICZKI Judit
A tribute to the recently deceased researcher, Miklós Fogarassy, former staff member of the National Szé-chényi Library, the Centre of Library Science and Methodology, later of the Hungarian Library Institute in the period from the fifties until his retirement in 2002. In addition to his wide-ranging professional activities, he was also a recognised literary scholar, art critic, and author of essays on art.
FROM ABROAD
Some selected issues in information behaviour of Slovenian scholars
VILAR, Polona – BARTOL, Tomaž – JUŽNIČ, Primož
(Conference paper, revised and translated by Tibor Koltay)
A survey was employed to evaluate the impact of information and communication technologies on infor-mation behaviour of Slovenian scholars. The impact is felt in the selection of resource formats, access to information, practices of information exchange, organization of resources in personal collections, reading scientific writing, and the use of library and information services. This behaviour also shows some specifics which can be attributed to particular research disciplines or research fields. Other factors of influence are age, area of employment, and available time; gender difference is important only in one case: information behaviour called „squirreling” is more typical of women. Slovenian scholars exhibit usual characteristics of scientists elsewhere, with the exception of a rather weak use of Web 2.0 tools for research purposes, and of open access materials. (Original abstract)
Museum object as document.
Using Buckland’s information concepts to understand museum experiences
LATHAM, Kiersten F.
(Journal of Documentation, vol. 66. 2012. no. 1. pp. 45–71.)
(Reviewed by Tibor Koltay)
The purpose of this article is to understand the meaning of museum objects from an information perspective. Links are made from Buckland’s conceptual information framework as a semiotic to museum object as „document” and finally to user experience of these museum „documents” The aim is to provide a new lens through which museum studies researchers can understand museum objects and for LIS researchers to accept museum objects as another form of document to be studied. (Original abstract)
Attitudes and managerial behaviour of Norwegian and Romanian academic library leaders
REPANOVICI, Angela – LANDØY, Ane
(Conference paper, revised and translated by Tibor Koltay)
Attitudes and managerial behaviour of library leaders in the changing world of information society is a major point in adapting and developing user satisfaction and better library services. Norway has high quality library services and Romania is developing the libraries within this aspect. This paper looks at attitudes about leadership and decision making among leaders in academic libraries in Norway and Romania. Two different surveys were conducted containing similar questions, and the results are compared. The surveys uncovered demographics – „who are the leaders?” as well. (Original abstract)
BOOK REVIEWS
From library history to the internet of the future. Essays in the honour of Miklós Bényei
A könyvtörténettől a jövő internetéig. Tanulmányok a 70 éves Bényei Miklós köszöntésére. (Ed. István Boda. Debrecen : Debreceni Egyetem, 2013. )
(Reviewed by Lajos Murányi)
Trends in Hungarian and international librarianship
Trendek a hazai és nemzetközi könyvtárügyben. (Ed. Péter Kiszl. Eger : Líceum Kiadó, 2013.)
(Reviewed by Sándor Szabó and Márton Németh)
The educated aristocrat. Libraries of noble families in Hungary in the 16th-17th centuries
MONOK István: A művelt arisztokrata. A ma¬gyar¬or¬szági főnemesség olvasmányai a XVI–XVII. században. (Budapest : Kossuth K.; Eger : EKF, 2012. )
(Reviewed by Szilvia Bánfi)
FROM FOREIGN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE JOURNALS (ABSTRACTS)