Category: Libraries & Archives / 2

Brief history of Budapest City Archives, list of the most important holdings of the Archives, history of Budapest.

The Bródy Sándor Public Library was founded in 1952 by the fusion of two small libraries. In 1957 the library moved to the storey of the ex Nagypréposti Palota (in English Palace of the Grand Provost) which is one of the most beautiful historic building in Eger.A large development began in the field of information science in 1997, so today the Internet and the computerised catalogue is available for the readers of the library. Today the library has several collections in different points of the city. It has a Children’s Library from 1957 in the Forrás Leisure Centre, a Public Administration Collection from 1976 in the building of the County Hall, a Music Collection from 1970 and a Local Studies Collection from 1981 in the main building and a Foreign Language Collection from 1983 in the building of the House of Arts.

Katona József County Library’s scope of duties is the professional and methodological management and support of the libraries in Bács-Kiskun County, the organisation of the movement for promotion of reading in the county and the organisation of library support for Kecskemét and its catchment area. Separate collections of the library: Local studies collection – collection of multiplied documents and local data published about Bács-Kiskun County, Music collection -collection of musical handbooks, periodicals, soundrecordings, for reference an for lending, Historical collection – the remained collection of Kecskemét Municipal Library enriched between 1897 and 1944. It is open to the public only to a limited extent. Collection Europe – lending stock of books written in foreign languages. There are considerable collections in English, French, German, Russian and sparse items in other foreign languages.

The Veterinary Science Library is the only veterinary library open to the public in Hungary. The library is as old as the training of veterinarians itself. The library serves the lecturers, researchers and students of the University. It is also responsible for the information and document provision of veterinarians – let them be private practitioners, or vets in state veterinary service or working in the research or commercial sector – and everybody who requires information or documents related to veterinary science.

Collections: University Collection, Old books and manuscripts, “Lajos Ligeti” Oriental Collection Military Collection, Austria Library, Hungary Collection, Canada Collection, Collection in Social Theory and Contemporary History.

The central Library of Semmelweis University is a public reference library with nationwide authority founded by in 1828. At present, it is at the reader’s disposal in 1500 square meters area with two reading rooms and 110 seats for readers, with holdings of 250 000 volumes. It is the methodological center of 48 institutional and departmental special libraries maintained by the Semmelweis University. The total of holdings of the departmental libraries: 270 000 volumes. Number of the current periodicals: 584 titles.

The Library of the University of Miskolc has a nationwide scope of activities, is a public and research library. Its duty is to collect and to make available information holdings according to the claims of education and research, especially nationwide in the areas of mining and metallurgy. In the library-building can be found the Selmec Museum Library, the University Archives and the Museum. The central library and the department libraries have holdings up to 900.000 volumes. It is growing yearly by about 12-15 thousands books and other documents. The number of serials is nearly 1000. Collection fields: Engineering (emphasis on mining and metallurgy) and all natural sciences necessary to cultivate these disciplines, Humanities and social sciences (law, economy, pedagogy, sociology, etc.), Disciplines necessary for the education of arts students (history, literary studies and linguistics, foreign languages, psychology, etc).

The National Agricultural Library and Documentation Centre (NAL) is a specialised, scientific, public institution carrying national tasks, it has the most important collection of special literature in the Hungarian agricultural sector, furthermore, it is the co-ordination centre for libraries of institutions of higher agricultural education and for agricultural special libraries. The library has joined several organisations, takes part in activities of IAALD (International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists) and LIBER (Ligue des Bibliotheques Européennes de Recherche). It is a member-library of AGLINET (Agricultural Libraries Network). The library functions as a deposit library of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, therefore it collects, processes, stores, and provides its publications.

The National Educational Library and Museum (NELM) is the information centre for educational science, public education and the history of education. It collects documents of the special literature of educational science and presents its material remains. It publishes also special bibliographies and data bases in that fields. Finally it is a methodical and coordinating centre for educational and school libraries in Hungary. NELM is a special library for education, an educational document centre, a methodical centre for school and educational libraries, a museum specialized in education, a basis for reseach in the history of Hungarian education and comperative education, a non-profit publisher.

The Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library celebrated the 100th anniversary of its foundation in 2004. The task of the library of the Hungarian capital, like that of all institutions with information services, is supporting the acquisition of knowledge, entertainment and study in the fields of science, technology, education, work, personal development and culture of surroundings (environmental culture) with the available traditional and modern methods. It is in accordance with the international trends of library development.