STUDIES
International document supply in the National Széchényi Library
PAULIK Péter
As mediator and co-ordinator, the National Széchényi Library (OSZK) plays a unique role in the Hungarian inter-library loan (ILL) system. Possessing the most extensive background (including a union card catalogue that covers holdings of books published in Hungary before 1952 and abroad after 1800), it is a reference and service centre for the whole country. Via konkoz@oszk.hu anybody is able to send a request to the National Széchényi Library’s ILL department, which fulfils loan requests of international customers through ODR (the National Document Supply System) and copy requests from its own holdings. The main sources of OSZK’s ILL service are European academic libraries for loans and OCLC member libraries for copies. In addition, one of its important duties is to supply Hungarians living in the neighbouring countries and all over the world with Hungarian publications. While the number of requests has been recently decreasing, this group demands more intensive and time-consuming input from the staff. Patrons increasingly need digital reproductions instead of paper copies. ELDORADO (the National Electronic Document Delivery System, Database and Repository), to be launched at the end of 2014, will provide a fundamentally new framework.
The Library of the Hungarian
Parliament renewed
VILLÁM Judit
In 2012, the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament established a committee to reform the Parliamentary Library. The committee’s recommendations included a review of the Library’s organisation and spatial structure. Other objectives were: to upgrade the foreign-language holdings of the reference library, and to increase the usage of the collection and services. During the months of remodelling (June 2013 to March 2014) the library staff was engaged in a large-scale stock reduction, moved parts of the collection as necessary, and developed a new, open-access reference library, new work rooms and modern community spaces. During the renovation the original shelving was rebuilt in the reading room, and the gallery was added to readers’ area which has thus increased by 1.5 times and seats 130 readers. The reference library now holds 40 thousand volumes. The special collections (of the Hungarian and foreign Parliaments, plus the UN and EU deposits) also have been relocated to public areas. Opening hours increased, library use was simplified, and the choice of remote services was extended. The reading room offers now 40 new client machines, and users have Wi-Fi access. A new electronic display system was installed to inform readers. A new system of subject specialists and the updated library databases (e.g. PRESSDOK, HUNDOK, VPI, T. HÁZ!) further assist users. Future plans include receiving more groups for library visits, conducting introductory sessions into the use of special literature, as well as devoting a special room to extension training purposes, database presentations and practical training. During the next stage of the project Digitised Legislation Knowledge Base 150 thousand pages of Parliament materials are going to be digitised.
Research, professional policy – national strategy. PISA 2012: data, assumptions and conclusions
NAGY Attila
In 2012, the triennial international PISA survey of 15-year-old students took place for the fifth time in OECD countries to assess their reading comprehension, knowledge in mathematics and science competences. This time Hungarian students performed below the average in all areas, although in 2009 they reached or exceeded the average in all fields. Hungarian data from 2012 indicate the following trends: there was a general decrease in the averages, the ratio of better performers diminished, while that of worse performers was growing. Between 2009 and 2012 there was a significant decline in results in general, while a radical fall was experienced in performing computer-related tasks. In his conclusions the author proposes to consider the following: a) deteriorating results may be related to teachers’ inconvenient working conditions, bad mood, and low income; b) education is underfunded; c) there is a need for experienced professionals to assist disadvantaged children in catching up; d) reading comprehension is not merely a function of reading instruction methods, but is a task for the teaching staff as a whole.
Extending Public Lending Right to non-print publications
AMBERG Eszter
After discussing terminology issues the author compares the EU Directive 2006/115/EC (of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on rental right and lending right and on certain rights related to copyright in the field of intellectual property) with the provisions of the Hungarian Act on Copyright (Act LXXVI of 1999). In Hungary it is the exclusive right of the author to distribute his work, and this right includes public lending. As regards e-books, the lending of digitised works is qualified as release to the public.
There is a new development in the UK that deserves attention: Public Lending Right is going to be extended from July 1, 2014 to include the public library loans of audio books and e-books downloaded on library premises. Remote downloading, however, remains under the Copyright Law and requires permission.
Online community of readers = e-reading?
JÁVORKA Brigitta
In Hungary e-book culture is now evolving. Publishers are producing a large number of new e-books, and libraries are widely discussing how to provide them to readers. (Legal regulations are missing as yet.) Up till now readers could obtain new Hungarian e-books most of the time illegally, therefore, several online communities have been formed, which are exchanging e-books among themselves. The author’s research sought answers to the following questions: 1. Where can such communities be found on the internet? 2. How are they working? What are the behavioural patterns of their members? 3. What is the difference between the attitudes of traditional and new reading communities towards e-books and e-reading? The article presents the community of the biggest Hungarian social website for booklovers, named Moly.hu. The author expects great changes in the world of e-books.
WORKSHOP
Computerised information retrieval based on UDC – a new approach
PIROS Attila
The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is one of the oldest and most widely used classification systems in the world. Its ubiquity can be explained, among others, by its continuous revision and updating by its maintainers. Automated indexing with UDC has been on the agenda for years, but is still waiting to be solved, mainly because of the analytic-synthetic and faceted nature of this information retrieval language. Currently, there is a great deal of research going on regarding UDC’s use in online catalogues. Some of these treat UDC notations as subject words, or provide, at the most, an opportunity to index some of its elements selectively. The article reviews and analyses current strategies for the computerised retrieval of UDC notations, lays the theoretical foundations of a possible alternative, and presents, as the first element of the system described, the operation of a syntax-based software to analyse notations.
FROM OUR PAST
Additions to historical book collections – identifying unknown prints from before 1800
KNAPP Éva
Registering old Hungarian prints from before 1800, missing from the retrospective national bibliography, is a continuous process. The number of previously unknown prints from the 17-18th centuries is increasing as a result of recent research. These prints are located in smaller libraries open for the public, archives and private libraries. The author found prints in a private library that have not been registered until now, and describes from among them three publications from Tyrnavia (Nagyszombat, Trnava).
Papers from the Memorial session in the honour of Professor Géza Fülöp
Introductory thoughts
KISZL Péter
The group of articles starts with a brief summary of Géza Fülöp’s (1928-1998) career path. He joined the LIS School of the Eötvös Loránd University in 1961. He acted as Head of Department between 1986 and 1994. His name is associated with a renewal of the department and the modernisation of its training structure. He was very popular as a professor, researcher and public figure. The papers cover his professional activities in more detail.
Géza Fülöp, a disciple and successor of Máté Kovács
SEBESTYÉN György
Analysing the similarities between the oeuvre of Máté Kovács (1906-1972) and Géza Fülöp, the author (retired Head and Professor Emeritus of the LIS School of the Eötvös Loránd University) found that both his predecessors led the department in times of complex political and social changes, and they both worked for rescuing and modernising the department, and for elaborating a reform of library education. The chapters of the study are representative of the five areas, which show an organic relationship between the scientific life work of Máté Kovács and Géza Fülöp: Curriculum reform – curriculum revolution; Introduction and renaissance of bibliology; The anthology entitled Books and libraries in the life of Hungarian society (1000-1945); Focused support for information on science and technology; Doctoral training. Both Kovács and Fülöp had an exceptional and outstanding career, and although they worked in times of crisis, they achieved outstanding results. Their professional work continues to be an important theme for research.
Talent management and career tracking, as seen by Géza Fülöp
BARÁTNÉ HAJDU Ágnes
Géza Fülöp as Head of the LIS School at the Eötvös Loránd University between 1986 and 1994 made great efforts to strengthen the position of the specialty and the department. His new training plan achieved a balance between theory and practice, and gave bigger emphasis to IT skills. He succeeded in re-integrating the sociology of culture and reading, and reading psychology into the curriculum. He considered it as essential to adapt training to the demands of the profession: he found it extremely important to organise the practical training of students in co-operation with partner libraries. His personnel policy was characterised by recruiting new faculty members and researchers, also from the practice. His new training programme included special training in books history and book museology. He achieved an extension of second majors (science, foreign languages). In 1991, when the department moved to a new place on Museum Boulevard, he established a separate library for the department and a computer laboratory. Under his leadership the department joined the Tempus project, and enlivened foreign relations. He worked in EUCLID, of which he was elected Vice President. As chairman of the Joint training committee of the Association of Hungarian Librarians and the Federation of Libraries and Information Centres, he elaborated training programmes for different levels of library education. He initiated the harmonisation of the curricula of training institutions, and supported training in Baja and Debrecen. He was an outstanding researcher and the author of basic textbooks, specialising in the history of culture, books, libraries and the press, reading culture, bibliography, history of literature, research organisation and education policy. His colleagues edited a Festschrift for his seventieth birthday in recognition of his achievement and as an expression of their love. He was constantly watching his students’ career, supported them in finding a post and encouraged their professional development.
From the history of book publishing and editing at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the Reformed Age
GAZDA István
The author outlines some interesting cases from the history of book publishing by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the Reformed Age.
The first item of the bibliography entitled The publications of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1828 to 1950 (published in 1978) was a work dated 1828, which, according to the compilers, was the first publication of the Academy. The author found the year suspicious, because the first book published by the Learned Society originated in 1833. The list of publications from the Reformed Age could be compiled based on serial numbers with a considerable effort. It was found that between 1831 and 1848 the Society published 104 books, but – since one of them (number 19) appeared years later – a total of 103 books were registered. The author presents the first publication of the Learned Society on mathematics, the logarithm table issued in London, and concludes with describing the history of Mihály Vörösmarty’s and Gergely Czuczor’s Hungarian school grammar books deemed to have been lost.
Do we know our old printers?
V. ECSEDY Judit
The article provides an overview of the representatives of Hungarian typography examining how well we know the printers and their helpers by the name. From the period 1473 through 1700, researchers know a total of 171 persons engaged in printing by their names. These include Reformed printers, owners of printing offices who are also known as preachers (e.g., Péter Bornemisza, Gál Huszár, Johannes Honterus or Gáspár Heltai). In the 17th century several printers came to Hungary from abroad as well. Some of them had “talking” names, referring to their place of origin (e.g., Pál Lipsiai Rheda, Pál Linzi Pistorius). Occasionally noblemen (e.g., Ferenc Nádasdy, Boldizsár Batthyány) or the Catholic Church invited foreign typographers, and some printers are known to have studied in Flanders and England (Mihály Udvarhelyi, Miklós Tótfalusi Kis).
Hungarica materials at the Rutgers University Libraries. Letters of Hungarian-American soldiers enlisted in the US Army during World War II (1942-1945)
KOVÁCS Ilona
Approximately 400 letters of soldiers had been hiding in the collection of Rutgers University (New Jersey), when the author found them in search of Hungarica materials. These letters were written during World War II (primarily in English, and a very small part in wrong Hungarian) by Hungarians, who served in the US Army. The letters found represent very important sources from the point of the history of Hungarians in America. They provide information about the thinking, language use, identity, integration readiness of second-generation young Hungarian Americans, and deserve the interest of historians, linguists and sociologists as well. The author provides a brief outline of the families and historical background of the letters’ authors, the evolution of letters and the reflection of their experience from the war.
FROM ABROAD
Readers and reading in the Czech Republic
TRÁVNÍČEK, Jirí (Translated by Ilona Hegyközi)
This paper is concerned with the reading culture of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic (aged 15 years and over) against the background of three readership surveys (in 2007, 2010 and 2013 resp.). The deep interviews conducted focused on three areas: reading (books and journals), book purchase and library visits, and also dealt with digital reading, media use, leisure activities, and the mutual impact of reading and professional work. With regard to the entire period, reading can be considered as stable. The number of frequent readers has decreased, and there was a decrease in the purchase of books and library visits as well. Overall, it can be stated that the Czech population has a strong affinity for books: 82 % of the population read at least one book in the previous year. Frequent readers are also Internet users. Women read more, but in the age group of 25- to 44-year-olds, a decrease is experienced in the number of readers, book buyers, and the number of library visits.
Research data and libraries
KOLTAY Tibor
Managing and sharing research data, and the relevant role of libraries constitutes the theme of an increasing number of publications. Scientific data vary widely from the point of their origin, format and sources. The concept of data can be least easily defined in the humanities, nevertheless, with the emergence of digital humanities it has been widely analysed. Computer technology now enables the collection, linking and investigation of “Big data”. At the same time, attention should be paid to the objectiveness and accuracy of available information, as well as to the evolving ethical problems. Data sharing is currently restricted to a few areas of science only as there is no consistent practice as yet. Researchers are not particularly motivated to share, even though research funding agencies expect them, at least in the US, to submit data management plans, and to make available publicly funded research data. Open data contribute to data sharing. For the best use of data, technical and organisational conditions of storage and retrieval should be developed. The range of data to be retained must be reviewed from time to time because of costs. The author reviews related policies and the most important issues waiting for a decision. Data documentation and citation require a regulation as well. The role of libraries and librarians (in this case: data curators) in data management needs reconsidering but it is certain that those with data-literacy will be highly appreciated.
BOOK REVIEWS
Catalogue 2.0 – do library catalogues have a future?
Catalogue 2.0. The future of the library catalogue. Ed. Sally Chambers. London: Facet, 2013.
(Reviewed by Anikó Dudás)
70 years of the City Library in Pécs
Pécs Város Közművelődési Könyvtárától a Csorba Győző Könyvtárig. 70 éves a közművelődési könyvtár Pécsett (1943–2013). Pécs: Csorba Gy. Kvt., 2013.
(Reviewed by Ferenc Kégli)
Publications of a printing house in Pest in the 19th century
RÓZSA Mária: „Közfényt gyarapítni”. Beimel József és Kozma Vazul pesti nyomdájának története és nyomtatványai 1830–1864. Budapest: OSZK-Gondolat, 2012.
(Reviewed by Lajos Murányi)
FROM FOREIGN LIBRARY
AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
JOURNALS (Abstracts)