51. évfolyam, 2005. 1. szám

Archívum

The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences supporting research in humanities and social sciences

MURÁNYI, Lajos

Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 15. (51.) 2005. no. 1. pp. 45 – 50.

The Library of Hungarian Academy of Sciences was founded in 1826 and was opened to scholars in 1844. Its collections interests are literature and linguistics, classical studies, oriental studies, science policy and history of science. The holdings include over 2,000,000 documents of all types. The collection development is ensured mainly by donations and exchanges, and occasionally by purchasing. From 1949 to 1994, the library was functioning as the central library for the network of research institutes run by the Academy of Sciences.

Since the 1960s, the library has been publishing a number of reference works. Research and Development included 868 reviews, 53,000 bibliographic records, 2,082 articles published between 1961 and 1994. HungInfo, Hungarian Social Sciences and Humanities, Contents of Periodicals was published from 1986 to 1989. Analecta Linguistica, a reference journal of linguistics was edited at the library between 1976 and 1992.

A few reference works were published in international cooperation, e.g. in the framework of the International Social Sciences Information System (1976 – 1990) and the European Cooperation on Social Sciences Information and Documentation (ECSSID) coordinated by the Vienna Centre. Within this latter programme, publications on current researches were issued and the ECSSID Bulletin was edited at the library.

The library played an important role in the computerised reference services of the 1980s: they were providing information retrieved from ISI, SCI, SSCI, and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. At the moment, the library has access to these services within the Electronic Information Services programme run by the Ministry of Education in Hungary. The Library is participating in other consortia for accessing electronic services such as Periodical Contents Index, Literature Online, European Sources Online by Proquest, Biographical Resources Index and EBSCOhost. A digitisation programme was also launched out of external funding. A so far unpublished bibliography of Hungarian writer’s biographies and works (compiled by Pál Gyulás) has recently been made accessible in electronic form and the official documents of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences are being digitised as well.

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek