Where to find the book reviews?
MURÁNYI Péter
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 9-30.
The article investigates the Hungarian information sources where book reviews of the past few years can be found. The availability of book review records related to literary works was examined on the basis of book reviews published in a newspaper (Népszabadság) and in a weekly periodical (Élet és Irodalom). The results were then compared with the data of a survey conducted in 2002 by Géza Vasy that examined the number of critiques and reviews published in 12 literary magazines. In the case studies of the pre0sent article, the author searched for reviews of three non-fiction works and two recently published novels, using every possible searching tools and information sources. The results show that an average library user would need to undertake very time-consuming research work in order to find the reviews of a book with a relative completeness. Two international examples of efficient book review searching are presented: the Book Review Index (BRI) and the B ook Review Digest Plus (BRD+), databases in which the author did searches for reviews of books by Hungarian writers. As a conclusion, the author proposes the idea of a Hungarian catalogue of book reviews, either set up as an independent database, or as part of an already existing database. Libraries, computers, reading. Quick report on the results of a survey conducted by the National Széchényi Library and TÁRKI Social Research Centre
NAGY Attila – PÉTERFI Rita
Könyvtári Figyelő 2006/1 6 Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 31-45.
TÁRKI Social Research Centre has been conducting longitudinal household monitoring surveys since 1992. In 2005, on the initiative of the National Széchényi Library, 10 questions on reading habits and library use, as well as 10 questions on computer and Internet use were added to the permanent topics. The survey was carried out between 16 th September and 15th October 2005. The sample consisted of 3674 citizens over 18, in order to make the results comparable with the data obtained from previous reading surveys over the past four decades. This quick report highlights the most spectacular changes and tendencies. As for the proportion of book readers within the surveyed sample, the percentage of non-readers has increased from 40% to 60% since the 1960s. 80% the of non-readers do not use computers either. When taking a closer look at the content of reading, it can be noted that instead of the classical orientation of the 1960s, readers show a preference towards national and international popular fiction, however, a slight improvement in quality book reading can be stated too. The reading of newspapers and magazines has been decreasing continuously. In respect of sources of reading, the number of books obtanied by library loan has decreased by 66% and the motivation for buying books has weakened as well. The usage data of library services show stagnation. Who is the average library user? She is a woman, aged between 18 and 29, and she is most likely member of several libraries. Questions were asked about the latent library users (e.g. family members), the frequency of library visits, and the range of services used. The responses revealed a significant setback in the requests for reference services. As opposed to this, the use of computers has increased and shows a close connection to library use. However, the percentage of the culturally disadvantaged – in this context the non-readers – is increasing, the maintained usage data of library services is probably due to the expansion of higher education, while the use of Internet shows stagnation.
Hungarian frequency dictionaries
LENGYELNÉ MOLNÁR Tünde
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 45-58.
The automation of abstracting is based on the definition of the most important sentences of the text, and is produced with statistical methods, using the achievements of linguistics. First of all, a word frequency list needs to be established in order to define the most significant words of the text. The first Hungarian frequency dictionaries were published between the two world wars. They were extensively used in shorthand writing (e.g. the language of the Hungarian Parliament debates, or the language of newspaper articles). Frequency dictionaries also started to play an important role in setting up the vocabularies of language learning textbooks. Several vocabularies of the poetic language of classic authors (Sándor Petofi, Gyula Juhász, Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, Miklós Zrínyi) and vocabularies related to Hungarian classic literary works were published. Some other works dealt with children’s vocabulary and the language of newspapers, while glossaries of scientific disciplines were only published a later time. One of the most important ongoing Hungarian dictionary projects is called the Szószablya /WordSword project carried out at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. This project aims to create a web dictionary on the basis of the Hungarian webcorpus, a collection of more than 18 million Hungarian webpages. Another large-scale project is the Hungarian National Corpus, carried out at the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This latter project is based on a corpus of 150 million words to represent the written use of the Hungarian language.
The legal regulation of libraries in Austria-Hungary
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 59-95.
In the historical period of Austria-Hungary (1867-1918), only a few areas of the operation of libraries and museums were legally regulated. Although various concepts were elaborated by professional groups in order to prepare a comprehensive state regulation for cultural institutions, these efforts did not go past the stage of discussion. The study presents the circumstances in which a new law on legal deposit came into effect in 1897. A previous law on legal deposit had existed since 1848, but the rapid development of the printing and publishing industry, as well as the need for additional types of documents to deposit made it necessary to introduce some amendments. During the long debate, the following issues were raised: how many copies should be requested for deposit; should the copies be provided free of charge or should libraries reimburse the printers for the copies; is it better to create one or several deposit libraries? The new regulation distinguished the deposit of administrative documents and scientific publications, establishing the legal framework for the deposit of publications for academic purposes. The second part of the study focuses on the state administration and the professional guidance of libraries. In 1897, the National Council of Museums and Libraries was set up, followed by the Nati onal Alliance of Museums and Libraries in 1902. In the legal and administrative conditions of the dual monarchy, Hungarian libraries had a chance to raise to the level of services of other European libraries. The organisational framework of the Hungarian library system was founded during that time, and the same period gave new momentum to the development of the largest collections that continue to operate to date.
In remembrance of Magda Horváth (1914-2005)
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 96-99.
Magda Horváth was an outstanding expert and professor of library cataloguing and indexing. She worked at the Centre for Library Science and Methodology of the National Széchényi Library. Together with Dénes Kövendi, she was one of the authors of the Hungarian thesaurus of library science and reference services that is still being used by the Library and Information Science Library for subject cataloguing. She was also editor of Könyvtári Figyelo (Library Review), at that time known as Könyvtári and Dokumentációs Szakirodalom (Hungarian Journal of Library Science and Documentation).
The code of ethics of Hungarian librarianship
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 100-101.
Library Review publishes the final version of the code of ethics of Hungarian librarianship, issued in January 2006. The 10 chapters deal with the following issues:
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
“Gormangate or the Revenge of the Blog People?”- summary by Jenő Mohor
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 103-108.
Report on the debate provoked by the article of Michael Gorman „Revenge of the Blog People!”, published in February 2005 in Library Journal. The summary is based on the original article and responses published in Library Journal.
The acquisition of German language books in three Budapest research libraries. Cultural setting and library division of labour. Part 2. 1945- 1990.
NIESSEN, James P.
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 109-128.
The second part of this study of the acquisition of German language books at the libraries of the Eötvös Loránd University, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the National Széchényi Library since 1990 traces fluctuations in the prestige of German language and culture, and the Communist authorities’ efforts to coordinate collection development among the country’s libraries. German as a language of scholarship declined more slowly in Hungary than in Western countries, due to the special relationship of Germany and Hungary.
Digitisation with DjVu in Hungarian
HAJNAL-WARD Judit
Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 16. (52.) 2006. no. 1. pp. 129-137.
The preservation of documents in electronic form is a solution widely applied by libraries and archives. DjVu is a new image compression technology that allows the digitisation and display of very high resolution images of scanned colour pages of documents. The author presents the most important features of the new technology, and gives examples of its application in library environment through the digitisation work carried out at the Library of the American-Hungarian Foundation.
ANDRETTA Susie: Information literacy: a practitioner’s guide
Reviewed by Koltay, Tibor
GEREBEN Ferenc: Reading culture and identity. The cultural and national identity of Hungarian minorities in the Carpathian Basin
Reviewed by Arató, Antal
KAMARÁS István: Reading education
Reviewed by M. Mátrai, Györgyi
GRIEBEL Rolf: Etatbedarf universitarer Bibliothekssysteme. Ein Modell zur Sicherung der Literature und Information versorgung an den Universitaten.
Reviewed by Éger, Veronika