Hungary 

    Directory Information

     Formal Name:        National Szechenyi Library
     Name of Librarian: Geza Poprady
     Address:                Budavari Palota F-epulet, 1827 Budapest
     Phone:     (01) 1757533;        Fax:    2020804;
     E-mail:     viki@oszk.hu



History & Collections

The National Szechenyi Library),  founded in  1802.  is the largest Hungarian library, with a collection of almost 6,869,000 volumes (1988). Aiming at comprehensive coverage, it collects publications and photograph records produced in Hungary, as well as works published abroad in Hungarian or pertaining to Hungary. (There are about 15.000.000 Hungarians in the world,  more than 3.500.000 of them in neighboring countries and about 1.000.000 in North and South America.)

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the national library are to collect and distribute legal deposit copies; to maintain the national union catalogues of foreign books and periodicals:  to  serve  as  the  center of interlibrary lending and to manage the international exchange of publications; to act as a central repository; to house the ISBN and ISSN bureaus; to maintain a central registry
of libraries: to operate a central restoration laboratory; to perform research and development; to provide proiessional  assistance  for  all  Hungarian  libraries through the Center for Library Science and Methodology (1959), and, last but not least, to compile and publish current and retrospective national bibliographies. The national library is also the coordination
center for public library systems.


Sources:

World guide to libraries. New York: Saur, 1998.
World encyclopedia of library and information services. 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association,c1993.