STUDIES
The social functions of library service points. A research report
FEHÉR Miklós
Between June and September 2012 the Hungarian Library Institute conducted an online survey among small community institutions. As potential data providers those municipalities were considered that were members of the Library Service System for Rural Areas (KSZR) – about two thousand small communities. The number of returned questionnaires was 688, i.e. third of the service points responded. The survey found that 93% of the cities examined had a library, 85% had a church, and 75% had a pub. The majority of respondents (94.6%) thought that the library has a leading role in the community’s life, and it was found that – in addition to fulfilling the functions of an e-Hungary point, a youth club and a telecottage – the library supports the community’s life in the same way as the community cultural centre. The activities of libraries in the classic fields (inter-library loan and document supply, database construction, information consulting, on-site reference service) are strong enough, but they lag behind as regards assistance at applying for grants and particularly as regards local history work.
Users’ trust and the digital provision of census data. Past, present and future in Hungary and Great Britain
LENCSÉS Ákos – RÓZSA Dávid
The authors first give an overview of Hungarian census history, pointing out why the population tended to show distrust against statistical data collecting. They compare the Hungarian Central Statistical Office’s (CSO) current census data service to the relevant practice in the UK. Analysing the British digitising and processing methods, the study proposes a solution for the digitisation of statistical data in Hungary: the Library of the CSO should, as a co-ordinator, organise the digitisation of census data in Hungary in partnership. Librarians could act as a link between historical demographers, archivists, researchers and companies engaged in digitisation when setting up a common database of census data.
WORKSHOP
“To be on the Web” vs. „to be of Web”. Namespaces for the Functional Requirements (FR) family of bibliographic metadata models and the Semantic Web
DUDÁS Anikó
IFLA has published the namespaces for the Functional Requirements (FR) family of bibliographic metadata models in Resource Description Framework (RDF), the basis of the Semantic Web. The FR namespaces are maintained and accessed using the Open Metadata Registry, OMR). The aim of the article is to review the theoretical background that is essential for understanding the basic principles of the Open Link Data (OLD) technology and the Semantic Web. The relationships between the FR bibliographic family, other corresponding metadata models, the new Anglo-American and international cataloguing code RDA (Resource Description and Access) and RDF are also highlighted. Recent developments in Hungarian library data regarding open linked data are reviewed as well. The title refers to Karen Coyle’s words to express the essential differences of traditional processing and thinking about library data, and today’s needs for linking data from disparate resources that may require transforming metadata in catalogue records into the RDF know¬ledge representation framework that is a „machine-actionable” semantic web format.
Chances for post-coordination in UDC
MÁNDY Gábor
The study suggests a way of enhancing the post-coordinated features of UDC, looks at the possibilities of automatically splitting up complex UDC expressions into meaningful elements (notations derived from other parts of the tables, and special auxiliaries included), offers separate algorithms illustrated with BASIC codes, shows how this analysis could be done outside the individual OPACs, by a chain of programs, and how the resulting descriptors could be used to find the relevant documents within a library and also worldwide, on Google. The demo programs can be tried out online and the BASIC codes can be downloaded.
Opinions on the journal Könyvtári Figyelő. Findings of a survey
KOVÁCS Katalin
In September 2012 the editors of Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) sent out an online questionnaire with 17 questions to gauge how its readers use and assess this professional journal. Nearly one third of the subscribers filled in and returned the questionnaire. The majority of 107 respondents were women with higher education degrees, who live mainly in cities and county-centres; many of them were BA or MA students, faculty members, as well as senior librarians in leading positions who are informing themselves from the journal and like to use both the print and the electronic formats. The sections Studies, From abroad and From foreign journals (abstracts) proved to be the most popular ones among readers. The respondents have suggested publishing more articles on practical issues beyond the theoretical and historical ones.
FROM OUR PAST
The role of Gyula Wlassics in librarianship in the first decades of the 20th century. Part 1
SIPOS Anna Magdolna
Gyula Wlassics (1852–1937) as Minister for Culture was responsible for archives, libraries and museums at the turn of the century, later, between 1903 and 1921, as president of the Council of Museums and Libraries, and of the Confederation of Museums and Libraries. The years after the turn of the century are considered as „a golden age” of public collections, because in these years they became consolidated, and their development started. The study focuses primarily on Wlassics’ library policy, and discusses his operative work on the development of public collections.
The Collection of Early Books of the National Széchényi Library
FARKAS Gábor Farkas
The study presents the special collection of incunabula and manuscripts from the Middle Ages in the Hungarian National Library. This collection has been growing since its founding (1802). Several outstanding private collections have been added, thus it became inevitable to separate the early materials from the old general collection. This special collection was created in 1934 from selected materials under the name Old Hungarian Library, containing 16th-century books, engravings of Buda, 17th-century Hungarian books, valuable ephemera, occasional prints, calendars, ex-librises, as well as books with a historical binding. Later the Collection of Early Books became one of the special collections holding other special (and mostly old and rare) documents (manuscripts, maps, posters, photos, audiovisual materials). Nowadays the most important task of the Collection is digitisation.
FROM ABROAD
American libraries in a current of changes
SONNEVEND Péter
The recent financial and economic world crisis has also severely affected also the United States’ cultural life. The author describes the trends experienced in the operation of US public and academic libraries, based on statistics of publishing and libraries from recent years.
Act now! Final report of the European Union High Level Group of Experts on Literacy
In the autumn of 2012 the EU High Level Group of Experts on Literacy published its final report entitled Act now! It draws attention to the literacy crisis in all European countries, and gives recommendations for increasing the level of reading literacy and decreasing functional illiteracy. The abridged report can be found at the URL http://ec.europa.edu/education/literacy/resources/final-report/index_en.htm.
The Hungarian translation is presented here.
Some remarks by a member of the High Level Group of Experts on Literacy on the report Act now!
NAGY Attila
As a Hungarian member of the international expert group consisting of ten persons, the author complements the report with important background information.
HJØRLAND, Birger: Is classification necessary after Google?
(Journal of Documentation, vol. 68. 2012. no. 3. p. 299-317.)
(Reviewed by Tibor Koltay)
The future prospects of classification have essentially changed as a consequence of digital technologies. Users have competing systems and services at their disposal on the internet. If they do not approve of the quality of centralised classification, they have a chance to look after an alternative solution. The theory and practice of subject indexing should aim at offering a high-quality, global-level service. Having presented various types of subject indexing the author describes a possible evidence-based practice.
GUNDERSEN, Arne – KUBECKA, Magdalena: Polish-Norwegian cooperation on strategies for regional libraries.
(Library Management, vol. 32. 2012. no. 1/2. pp. 104–111.)
(Reviewed by Éva Viszocsek-Péteri)
The case study reports on a bilateral project including Polish and Norwegian library institutions which resulted in new strategic plans for the 18 regional libraries in Poland. The project was based on workshops in Poland, exchange of experience, consultations on draft strategies and a study visit to Norway for Polish library staff. The Norwegian partners benefited mostly by gaining insight into Polish society and culture, while the Polish participants have achived more tangible results drafting new strategic documents and a tighter network of regional libraries. (Based on the original abstract)
BOOK REVIEWS
Social sciences libraries. Interdisciplinary collections, services, networks. Ed. by S. W. Witt, L. M. Rudasill. Berlin: Saur, 2010.
(Reviewed by Anikó Dudás)
Pázmány relics in the University Library of Budapest
KNAPP Éva: Pázmány-relikviák a budapesti Egyetemi Könyvtárban = Pázmány relics in the University Library of Budapest (Budapest Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Egyetemi Könyvtár, 2012.)
(Reviewed by Péter Kiszl)