48. évfolyam, 2002. 4. szám

Archívum

Hungarian selection. The praise of mature bibliographies

MURÁNYI Péter
 

False data have been published in various sources regarding the reception of the Hungarian Imre Kertész’s novel entitled Sorstalanság that won the literary Nobel prise in 2002. The reason why false data were published may be the lack of knowledge of the bibliographic tools of literature.

The study presents the tools that can be used through a concrete example.

It focuses on older ventures, already finished, such as the bibliography of Hungarian literature (1966–1990) (A magyar irodalom és irodalomtudomány bibliográfiája) compiled by the National Széchényi Library, the bibliography of Hungarian literary theory (A magyar irodalomtudomány bibliográfiája (1977–1991) issued in the Hungarológiai Értesítő, the selected repertory of literary publications in Hungarian journals in 1981–1982 and its continuation: the selected repertory of literary publications in periodicals 1983–1989, the analytical catalogue of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabo Library (Irodalomtörténeti tanulmánykötetek és folyóiratok analitikus bibliográfiai kartotékjai), that can be the bases of ventures like Imre Kertész’s bibliography in print or on the Internet among the bibliographies of the Digital Literary Academy (DIA) and the Contemporary Literary Database (KIA) since their reliability is influenced strongly by what sources they use. Further sources could be earlier bibliographic ventures, lexicons (the new Hungarian Literary Lexicon – Új Magyar Irodalmi Lexikon), literary histories, the list of criticism that appeared in the journal Látóhatár for years, databases belonging to the system of the national bibliography, and currently built databases from related disciplines covering periodical articles.

While comparing and characterising bibliographies, lexicons, databases, he does not hide his critical remarks either. The search, performed upon a reference question, illustrated well that current electronic processing would be required with the cooperation of institutions involved. Thus the burdens of processing could be shared, and researches could find the information needed by means of a unified system.

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek