Abstracts

The code of ethics of Hungarian librarianship

The draft version approved by the Preparatory Committee of the code of ethics on 5 April 2005 contains the following chapters: 1. The code of ethics in librarianship 2. Core values 3. The librarian profession 4. Collection management 5. Serving library users 6. Transferring information 7. The professional community of librarians 8. The library as a workplace 9. Public relations 10. Validation of the code of ethics
From Filing to Name Spaces – An Outline of the Research History of the Authority Control

DUDÁS Anikó

The article offers an outline of the universal and domestic research history of name / title authority control. The core purpose of dealing with authorities arised from processing and maintaining a common information retrieval tool either for a single location or a shared system built upon unified filing rules.

Works on the history of catalogues and cataloguing throw light on the development of entry headings too. Filing rules and means were determined according to the recognition of functions of the catalogues. From the beginning of the 20th century, series of comparative studies examined the concordances of the different rules in order to facilitate development of international cataloguing principles to a unified code.

Research on authority control and authority file systems became a separate research field, as an important part of designing and building on-line integrated library systems. Theoretical approaches analysed the functions and purposes of authority control, while pragmatic approaches focused on adapting international principles in particular standards that assure linguistic, morphological and semiotic uniformity of the access headings, thus the consistency of the catalogue. A number of special guidelines were produced to support standardized data processing; important authority files became visible to the human community; syndetic structure and compatibility of automated systems evolved. Numerous empirical studies were carried out to evaluate authority control. New approaches are reflected in initiatives toward developing information technology which could preserve language and cultural traditions and enable searching in contextual frames. The concept of virtual name spaces arises as well. The article also touches upon a few Hungarian theoretical and pragmatic approaches.

 

The MOKKA-R project: the Hungarian National Shared Catalogue of Early Books

HEGYI Ádám

Similarly to the Hungarian National Shared Catalogue project, plans for a special cataloguing project on early books started in autumn 2003. As a first step, a survey was conducted to find out about the early book collections (books printed before 1850) at Hungarian libraries and their state of cataloguing. According to the results, nearly 900,000 items were identified in more than 200 collections. 90% of these documents are concentrated in the holdings of 20 important libraries.

The new database will function as a common catalogue of Hungarian early book collections but will also serve as a national catalogue of the locations of these documents. Documents of the same edition will be searchable individually and in addition to the location, individual features of the volumes will appear as well.

The documents printed in the Carpathian basin before 1850 are part of a common cultural heritage. Thus the cooperation between libraries needs to go beyond national borders and involve historical collections in neighbouring countries too. The main problems lie in the different level of cataloguing between the libraries to be included, as well as in the differences in respect of technical equipment, hardware and software used by individual libraries.

The catalogue uses the UNICODE character set, the cataloguing follows the practice of Szeged University Library and the National Széchényi Library. The system is able to export data in USMARC, HUNMARC and XML. The most important part of the database is the searchable catalogue. The database is hosted on the server of Szeged University Library. The initial developments have been completed and 6 library catalogues have already been uploaded. On the other hand, the cooperation between the partner institutions is progressing at a slow pace. The collections of Hungary-related early books held in other countries will be included at a later stage of the project, but the developers expect further difficulties due to the different level of technical readiness of the participating institutions.

 

Digital dreams – analogue reality? Personal views on a current issue

REISZ László

According to the author, information – in other words, content – is more important than format. Although printed documents will continue to be in use, digital collections are expected to prevail in the future. Digitisation cannot be regarded as simple provision of copies: it has enhanced features compared to the original copy. Two types of digitising projects can be distinguished: one of them is carried out for archiving purposes, while the other one focuses on the delivery of documents. Preservation projects are directed at the most valuable documents or works of cultural heritage in cases where the original format is hardly or not at all accessible by users. From the point of view of use, they primarily satisfy special academic and research needs. Digitisation of rare or endangered works with preservation purposes requires expensive and complex hardware. At the same time, the result will be an attractive picture file taking large storage space that, nevertheless, will not be suitable for direct access and use. The other type of digitisation activities satisfies the needs of the wide public (e.g. in the educational field) and aims to make available documents that are out of print, exist only in a few copies or cannot be loaned. As these works are digitised not as pictures but as texts, they take less storage space and require less expensive hardware, but at the same time they need more investment in human expertise and workload. The author’s vision of the future library is a cyberspace where information is available irrespective of the format, yet it is accessible by all users.

 

The Neumann Galaxy. Electronic age and computerised data formats

SALGÁNÉ MEDVECZKY Marianna

The first part of the study gives a summary of the changes that the library field underwent as a result of the development of information technologies. The overview touches upon the changes in the bibliographical data processing, the national MARC formats supporting data exchange and the efforts to harmonise these formats. The second part of the study focuses on a development project of the LIS Department of Debrecen University. Based on XML language, a markup language was elaborated that makes it possible for librarians to formalise the bibliographic description according to their own special needs. The language is called Bibliographic Description Markup Language (BDML). Its flexibility permits a better exploitation of the possibilities offered by bibliographic description. BDML is based on Hungarian cataloguing standards. Filters and style definitions can easily be applied to BDML.
The Digital Academic Textbooks Collection and the DocBook XML markup language

 

The digitisation project of the Kempelen Farkas Student Information and Resource Centre

MARKÓJA Szilárd

The Digital Academic Textbooks Collection, carried out at the Student Information and Resource Centre (Hallgatói Információs Központ – HIK), provides textbooks in digital form for students and academic staff. The project received funding from the Hungarian Ministry of Education. The project started with digitising the most urgently needed and most popular university textbooks. The digital delivery of textbooks is cheaper than the print delivery, and the digital format also enables users to use the texts in a more interactive way. In the digitisation process, the DocBook XML format is used. XML makes it possible to deliver, from the DocBook source file, the same content in different formats.

Tasks of the textbook project were divided between the HIK and the publishers. Copyright issues were dealt with by the publishers. Publishers also prepared the XML texts on the basis of the same pattern. The HIK takes care of checking the texts and converting them into html files. The texts are hosted on the server of the textbook collection and can be used free of charge during a period of 15 years. Staff of the collection hopes to continue the digitisation with further government support. Longer term plans include the production of complex e-learning packages.

 

Teaching programming in the LIS training

ISZÁLY György Barna

At the Library and Information Science Department of Debrecen University, there is a special focus on the teaching of ICT-related subjects. Teaching programming is an important part of the ICT training. Teachers can choose from several programming languages. The article presents the three most often used languages: Pascal, the C language and Java. The LIS Department of Debrecen University prefers the teaching of the more complex Java language leading to more practical skills.

 

The future of libraries: a user’s viewpoint

LINE Maurice B.

In his paper, the author discusses the future of libraries from a user’s viewpoint. He explains why he ideally wants of libraries and what would induce him to use them. Finally he suggests how likely his “wish list” is to be fulfilled, and thus say something about the future of libraries, both public and research. The main points discussed are: Library buildings as deterrents to use; Librarians now have competition; why use a library? Browsing and surrogates for browsing; The cost factors; The individualisation of information services; The social factor; Staff accommodation: why don’t use libraries? What should the future academic library be and do? Requirement for the future public libraries; A user’s hate list; What prospect is there for better future libraries?

 

The future of public libraries in the United Kingdom

USHERWOOD Bob

Recent reports from a variety of organizations and discussions at professional and other conferences have identified a range of recurring themes concerning UK public libraries. It is probable that these will remain on the professional and political agenda for the foreseeable future. Issues such as: professional accountability, library architecture, the evaluation of services, funding, ICT, users, the library workforce, partnerships and politics are identified and briefly discussed. The paper also confronts those who argue that British public library does not future, either because of administrative incompetence or as the result of technological developments. The transition from an industrial to an information society creates the need for a re-assessment of how well public libraries serve their communities.

 

Reflections on the future of University Libraries

BROWN Mark

The University and University College sector in the UK includes 171 universities and colleges, of varying size and focus. University libraries must reflect the strategic needs and priorities of their institutions, and respond to government initiatives, particularly those associated with widening participation and the introduction of variable fees. The response

to these trends has been more professional financial management, and a more directed and managerial approach to planning and evaluating services.

There are a number of important challenges facing university libraries. Responding to the changing role of information technology is crucial to the delivery of services as users expect the flexibility offered by electronic delivery. The building of a strong service culture is essential in an environment in which the student is increasingly seen as a customer.

Library staff must broaden their skill base, and exploit their natural gift for networking, particularly with other professional groups. The university library as a physical environment is also changing with a focus on inter-professional activity, public space and a flexible study environment.

The modern university library must offer a range of services which are virtual, distributed and hybrid in terms of electronic and print delivery, and which are increasingly delivered in collaboration with other service providers. Librarians are seen as integrators, able to bring together a wide range of resources in support of their institutions.

 

Bibliographies in Germany

FABIAN Claudia

Over the past few years, the future of cataloguing standards has become a hot topic in the German library field. There is a strong pressure on the internationalisation of standards, on exploiting the possibilities provided by automated catalogues and on the harmonisation of alphabetical and subject cataloguing. The German cataloguing communities are supporting the standardisation of cataloguing rules at the national level. The article deals with the current bibliographies, such as the national bibliography, the periodical database = ZDB and the shared catalogues, and also presents the retrospective national bibliographies and the developments related to authority files (GKD, SWD, PND).

 

School libraries in Slovenia. The first congress of Slovenian teaching librarians in Radenci

ZAGORECZ-CSUKA Judit

The article reports on the first international conference held by the School Libraries section of the Association of Slovenian Librarians and the Association of Librarians of the Promurje region in October 2004. Conference themes included the general situation and role of Slovenian school libraries today; the mission of school libraries in promoting reading; as well as opportunities and forms of cooperation between school libraries and public libraries.
TILKE, Anthony: Managing your school library

Reviewed by Bognárné Lovász Katalin

BARBIER, F. – LAVENIR C. B.: Histoire des médias

Reviewed by Jenő Mohor

The jubilee year-book of the training in library and cultural work at Debrecen University, 1963 – 2003
(ed. Éva Goda, and Suppné Tarnay Györgyi)

Reviewed by Veronika Éger

Kategória: 2005. 2. szám | A közvetlen link.

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