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
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.