51. évfolyam, 2005. 1. szám

Archívum

The 100th anniversary of the special library of sociology.
From the world bibliography of Ervin Szabó to the online sociological databases

REISZ, László

Könyvtári Figyelő (Library Review) vol. 15. (51.) 2005. no. 1. pp. 31 – 37.

The Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library has a rich professional history both as a metropolitan public library, and as a national special library in social sciences. Ervin Szabó, its founder and first director, was an internationally outstanding figure of the social and library sciences of his time. His level of professionalism and his innovative spirit had been decisive in the development of the library and continue to influence the library’s image today.

The sociological collection of the library was created in 1973 with the two-fold objective of cataloguing both the professional literature of the past and the contemporary Hungarian sociological literature. The current literature has been catalogued since 1972. The automated cataloguing started in 1987. The latest development, dating of February 2004, is an online database of approximately 110 000 entries called “SzocioWeb” that can be accessed free of charge by all users.

As part of the retrospective conversion, some important works were accomplished, among others the publication of the five-volume Hungarian Bibliography of the History of Sociology, containing the bibliographical data of social sciences publications between 1900 – 1929.

The retrospective cataloguing of Hungarian social sciences literature is going on in the Digital Social Sciences Archive. This is a full-text database aiming to collect selected monographies and periodical publications in social sciences and related disciplines between 1848 and 1948 in pdf format. This conversion method ensures that the original format and layout of the texts – in the case of books, usually the first edition – is maintained. It is expected that 550 – 600 books will be digitised, with 120,000 – 130,000 pages in total. Periodicals will include The 20th century; Freethought (1911 – 1918), the official journal of the Hungarian Freethought Association; Hungarian Social Sciences Review (1908 – 1914); Women and Society (1907-1913), the official journal of the Hungarian Feminist Association; Social Sciences (1921 – 1942) and Social Review (1931 – 1933). The Hungarian Digital Social Sciences Archive also constitutes an excellent educational resource.

Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Észrevételek