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Updated: 06 MAR 98
The Evolving Library Scene in Hungary
A personal account by Monika Segbert, European Commission, Telematics for Libraries, who visited Hungary in September 1995 to examine library developments.
Table of contents
Hungary, a country of 10.5 m people, lost large parts of its territories and about 4 million subjects of Hungarian nationality to neighbouring countries as a result of the first world war. In the Communist era, Hungary was prevented from co-operating with the West. Nevertheless, throughout its 50 years of Communist rule, it always retained its own distinct profile and identity. An example of this was its role as a meeting place for the two Germanies (and it being the first country to cut the fence through which East Germans could bolt), and its clinging to the well frequented "Weinstuben" that provided the setting for vivid exchanges of views and debates in a climate officially averse to the free flow of information.
The political relationship with neighbouring Romania and the Slovak Republic concerning their sizeable Hungarian minorities are one of the key political issues to be resolved in the pre-accession stage of membership to the European Union. A recently granted PHARE project for public libraries in Hungary and Romania is in fact addressing the important contribution public libraries can make to the process of cross-border, cross-nation understanding and co-operation. Other issues mirror the transformation of the post Communist states, namely reform of legislation and public administration, privatisation and re-structuring of education. The contribution of libraries particularly through business information services and educational support is indeed widely recognised.
It is said that Hungarians have a sober attitude towards life: a long term vision but also short term practical plans to survive by realising small measures step by step. Their tendency to be sticklers in attention to detail (a national characteristic exploited in swish adverts of foreign investors) and to strive for perfect solutions can however stand in the way of progress, especially in fast moving areas such as telematics.
Hungary's history as the most liberal of COMECON states gave it something of a head start in economic issues . It had to endure painful recession, but economic growth soon started to pick up with a plus of 2% in 1994. This growth is consumption has continued, driving trade deficit to an all time high and turning Budapest into a city full of American fast food outlets and bright new shops packed with the latest Western electronics, clothes and cosmetics. The result is a tough government austerity package to reduce foreign debt, and a "buy Hungarian" campaign by the local retailers. A general tendency to lament and focus on the black side of life creates an impression which is worse than reality. This is neatly demonstrated by an officially very bleak picture of the state of the economy in the press and in public opinion, while at the same time a recent OECD survey on the Hungarian economy concludes with a guarded, but optimistic outlook for the future.
It may be, at first glance, hard to distinguish Budapest - and its multitude of tourists - from a Western European capital. The picture is less seductive outside the capital, differing sharply between the more prosperous west of the country and the deprived eastern region. The average salary amounts to about $250 per month, the average price of a book is $3. Inflation is said to run at about 30%, but a large part of the economy is suspected to be "black", meaning that no one, least of all the State, knows the extent of economic transactions.
Membership of the European Union is a big item on the political agenda, Hungary's Europe Agreement having been in force for more than a year, but it will remain unclear for some time to come whether Hungary's economy will be in a state to survive full competition with the economies of the EU by the year 2000, the year projected for full membership.
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When times appear to be bad, then libraries must seize their chance, because investing in their development is not as costly as investing in other sectors. This statement demonstrates very neatly the Hungarian's practical approach to life !
Rising awareness at ministerial level of the potential of libraries (of all types) in the re-building of society has recently resulted in increased support to libraries. An announcement that 1996 will be declared the nation-wide " Year of Public Libraries " coincided with my visit. There is promise of substantial funds for new acquisitions, the figure quoted was of the order of $3.5m, to be awarded to successfully bidding libraries in a scheme of matching funds. A national week of libraries in October 1995, organised jointly by all professional bodies and associations, was designed to raise awareness about the role of public libraries in society, to point towards their financial plight and to canvass further support from officials and the public.
The important role of academic libraries within the restructuring of the Higher Education System is widely recognised, as fundamental assets for teaching and research and primary gateways to organised bodies of information and knowledge. As demonstrated by a number of initiatives, reports and conferences, Hungary is agressively striving to reconstruct its higher education system and to reinforce the links between a strong economy, the quality of life and education.
National plans for the development of libraries have been commissioned by various ministries and state bodies, such as:
- Initial System Design - National Specialised Literature Information System Implementation (commissioned by the Science Policies Committee, May 1994);
- The Information Infrastructure for Research, Development, Higher Education, Public Libraries and Public Collections in Hungary. An overview of computer networking and information services on the academic and R&D; community of Hungary (Prepared by the Office for the Development of Information Infrastructure, October 1994);
- Proposed Plan: Implementation of the Computer Network System for Hungarian Higher Education Libraries in the Framework of the Automation of Libraries of Hungarian Higher Education Institutes Sub-Project (commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Education, November 1994).
A possible World Bank Project (unlikely to come to fruition because of the Hungarian government's reluctance to accept the terms of the loan) foresees the upgrading of libraries in Hungary as part of the restructuring of the Higher Education system. This project broadly encompasses the priorities and aims of all the various other plans, and is made up of different modules, inter alia:
- Library Automation and Co-operation (Textbook and Higher Education Library Programme Module 1.2) Proposal to the Ministry of Culture and Education of Hungary by NBBI and PICA, October 1994.
The findings of the different modules, surveys and research relating to options for library development are summarised in:
Textbook and Higher Education Libraries Program - Libraries Subproject Summary Report (Indiana University, February 1995),
listing the priorities for library development as being
- collection development, including expanded inter library loan services;
- automation, including co-operative technology and database building;
- library buildings and restructuring of library management;
- retraining of library staff.
A quote from this (probably most important study of all) confirms my own, albeit brief and therefore much more superficial impressions: "libraries are in general highly valued institutional properties both in the scientific and cultural sense of the word, which used to receive financial support from the state in the past but have been neglected in recent years.... They are conservative and traditional in their intentions, are considered rather to be collections of documents than user-oriented institutions and they emphasise the library's preserving function".
Resource and development problems of the parent institutions are mirrored in the state of Higher Education libraries, resulting in inadequate collections particularly of foreign literature, and unsatisfactory conditions and infrastructure for modern library services, especially for inter-library bibliographic co-operation and resource sharing. Training and continuing education of library staff urgently require new approaches and initiatives. It was the recognition of all these needs and the required investment that led to discussions with and the development of this so called World Bank Textbook and Higher Education Libraries Programme.
Progress on this important study and plan of action is now halted pending a governmental decision on the loan from the World Bank. The outcome is generally viewed with pessimism. The uncertainty about the future - financial - state of libraries supports the continued adherence to the old principles of 'hoarding' rather than 'sharing'. It is presently difficult to detect attitudes and actions in favour of access to information rather than primary collection building. The lack of a developed culture of co-operation, competition for funds from official and private sources and the uncertain outcome of the World Bank Project are resulting in a suspension if not paralysis of national action, and a major jolt will be required to develop constructive co-operation.
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The National Library, now housed in the wing of the former Royal Palace that is believed to be the home of the famous Bibliotheca Corviniana, holds amongst its total stock of 7 million units more than 2.2 million books, nearly 300,000 serial publications, some 800,000 manuscripts, employs about 500 full time members of staff and is charged in accordance with the latest Library Act of 1976 with all the traditional tasks of a national library.
An article published in LIBER Quarterly 2/1, 1992 "The National Szechenyi Library Presents Itself and Its Problems of the Day " is said to be still just as true today and throws the spotlight on the problem areas, summarised in the next paragraph:
'The acquisition budget of the library has not been raised for several years, in the face of rapidly rising prices of publications. Holdings are made available through a range of traditionally produced card catalogues, apart from the 25,000 records accessible through the OPAC. More than 50% of its users (out of a total of some 20,000) are university students, a number that has greatly increased since the library moved into the new building (while the university library is very badly housed). As a left over from the old days, too many staff are overloaded with administrative duties. The complexity of (and demands on) the high level national bibliographic and cataloguing requirements, introducing the DOBIS/LIBIS system has meant a lot of software development, and all the problems associated with the transfer of the national bibliography by double conversion into the cataloguing module, from an outside computer centre'.
Regarding the national bibliographic services of the National Library, plans (and counter plans) for an improvement of the situation abound. Indeed, the Hungarian professional community can be said to have considered and documented with great care the (perfect) options for future development at macro and micro level. The fact is that the national bibliography is available in print, but somewhat out of date, and furthermore the printed issues do not contain indices. The plan is to make the national bibliography available on floppy disc and on-line as from January 1996, by uploading records into DOBIS/DMARC, then convert between DMARC and HUNMARC, ready for other libraries to integrate into their local databases. A CD-ROM version for the period 1976 - 1991 is available, and the National Cultural Fund has allocated 1.5 million Forints for an up-date.
The National Library is under severe pressure by all the other libraries to lead on the production of a nation-wide bibliographic information system, to achieve greater efficiency in producing bibliographic record (now each academic library in the country does its own original cataloguing), to solve problems of importing and exporting records from and to different systems, to create machine readable databases in order to provide the essential basis for active co-operation and resource sharing amongst Hungarian libraries. There is current dissatisfaction with the services of the National Library, and the view is generally sceptical that major improvements promised for the short term will be realisable.
The National Library professes to attach great importance to the adherence to standard s, e.g. HUNMARC and UDC for subject cataloguing (Librarians have been deploring the fact that several versions of HUNMARC were in use, but the National Library has now issued the definitive version, although it is not published as national standard yet).
The library also recognises the need to create Hungarian subject indices , to use a unified character set (under development by the National Library) and to build authority files . How much of these plans will be transformed from planing to reality, however, and how soon, remains to be seen, especially in the face of major imminent cuts said to be imposed on the National Library in 1996 !
The National Library produces (none as yet in such a way that records can be downloaded by other libraries) the following databases of national relevance :
- The OPAC of books published in Hungary , since November 1991;
- Union Catalogue of Hungarian and Foreign Books up to 1952, then continued for foreign books only, as the ideology claimed that every library had all the Hungarian books in stock they needed anyway. As from the late 80's it was re-started, but remains largely incomplete, as those libraries that automated their system stopped supplying their catalogue cards to the National Library. The National Library's inability to create and maintain a union catalogue of foreign books in Hungary is a fact deplored by many librarians, as this gap is seen to severely hamper the efficiency of resource sharing by interlibrary lending. As it is now, one just 'has to know or guess' which library might hold a foreign title, and try until successful;
- Serials published in Hungary since 1986, and a separate database Hungarian serials and series identifiable by an ISSN;
- National Periodical Database of Foreign Periodicals reported by libraries since 1981;
- HUN and Index Biographicus Hungaricus , databases containing respectively bibliographic descriptions and annotations of articles of Hungarian interest in foreign periodicals, as well as biographic data of Hungarian personalities in foreign countries.
There are major plans and projects regarding retrospective cataloguing of important collections, but it is hard to see how these are going to be financed or managed.
The National Library also houses the Centre for Library Science, with an important special collection and a range of activities for the profession (see paragraph 6).
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Higher education in Hungary comprises at present 74 state, 24 church and 4 private institutions (and their libraries), amongst them 19 university-level and 74 specialised colleges. Plans to increase the number of students by some 50-60% go hand in hand with the general restructuring of the higher education system. University and college libraries are traditionally basic constituents of the institutions of higher education in Hungary. Thus, the momentous changes in higher education impact directly on the growth and tasks of libraries, both from the point of quality and quantity.
Academic librarians would readily admit, that there has to be a negative answer as to whether their libraries can meet present demands . However, there is a silver lining to every cloud: operating by tradition on a system of closed stacks has implied a key role for the catalogue, which was developed to perfection, with many search possibilities (9 variety of catalogues for example in Szeged University Library). Those HE libraries in the process of automation find that their catalogues, once transferred into machine readable form, result in providing excellent access to stock.
Priorities for the development of Higher Education have been extensively researched and documented as part of the World Bank project. Pending a decision on these funds, most university libraries are individually going ahead with introducing integrated systems and networking, having secured funding from TEMPUS or the private foundations, while the biggest problem is seen to be the inadequate budget for primary collection building.
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The library of the Academy of Sciences and its branches (which are separate entities under the management of the institute director) in the 42 research institutes is guaranteed with the parliamentary act of 1994, putting the Academy directly under the Council of Ministers, and re-enforcing its role as an important institution for scholarship and scientific research. It's (still) excellent collections of 2m units and its outstanding special collections safeguard its place as a library of national importance (accounting for ca 25% of national inter library loan). The main library has high usage figures, mostly by staff and students of the Budapest universities.
However, along with projected cuts in public spending, the academy and its libraries is likely to face some heavy cuts in the near future.
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There are about 3,200 in Hungary, a number unfortunately increased rather than decreased as a result of the recent local government reform. This number is far too great to sustain at an adequate level of resourcing. 19 county libraries correspond to the regions and try to do justice to their dual role as city and county library, but often find themselves in a tug of money between the city and county authorities. Mobile libraries were in action several years ago, but do not exist anymore nowadays due to budget cuts, a curious fact in a country with a large rural population
Meeting the steeply rising usage figures, especially noticeable in the main city libraries, where undergraduate students and pupils account for anything from 50% to 80% of the users, is one of the main problems of public libraries. Many of them offer elaborate special abstracting services, nowadays computer based (Arts Index, Press Service, etc.), and are establishing business or community services.
Chronic under resourcing requires the charging for services : the City Library Budapest - admittedly exceptionally successful, makes some 30% of its cost in revenue, largely through fee based video lending. All public libraries charge registration fees, usually a minimal sum. The five major branch libraries in Budapest fulfil their role as reference libraries, including offering information services for community and business information.
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Special libraries of national importance include the libraries for agriculture, medicine, pedagogy, technology and the libraries of the parliament and the statistical office.
The Library of the University of Economics, Budapest, acts as major national special library. It intensively attempts to improve its services through the Common Campus Project, financed by TEMPUS to set up a business information network, together with Copenhagen, Aberdeen, Leicester, Barcelona.
An " informal" specialisation , based on the strength of holdings but not augmented by special funds, exists amongst several major libraries. Thus the city library of Budapest is the "special Library" for sociology, the university library Budapest for psychology etc.
Many firms used to maintain their special library. Their number is now drastically reduced, in line with the economic fate of many firms.
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The law requires schools to offer a library, but their quality depends very much on the school leadership. The recent law on public education has enforced the importance of school libraries and a change towards a more positive attitude can be detected.
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There were thousands of trade union libraries but now they have shrunk to about 1,200. These manage to survive independently of the state budget. Many of them are within cultural / community centres, with the trend pointing towards mergers with the local public library.
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Four institutions of higher education with academic libraries are church owned. The Catholic University of Budapest and its library play a major role. Other church libraries are slowly beginning to reassert themselves again, based on the fact that major collections of national importance are in the possession of the church, and that the law of restitution is giving property back to the church, which enables the re-opening of (publicly accessible) libraries.
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As early as the 1970s, Hungarian libraries showed serious interest in the computerisation of library processes, the main area being cataloguing in order to avoid duplication of manual work. MicroIsis was inevitably the most wide-spread system, with librarians paying early attention to conversion of records. It is due to this forethought that today's OPACs of academic libraries can boast a considerable number of records. It is also because of the thorough - avoiding disasters by careful planning - approach, that on the whole library automation initiatives are regarded a success story , thereby conditioning library staff attitude to being for rather than against library automation.
Integrated systems started to appear in the early 90s. The National Library opted for DOBIS/LIBIS, following on from 15 years of the Hungarian software Ketal and the MicroIsis system for the cataloguing of foreign books. Plans exist now to upload records into DOBIS/DMARC, then to convert between DMARC and HUNMARC. Plans also exist to upload these databases into DOBIS/LIBIS. The National Library's LAN includes some 100 terminals, of which 10 are for readers, for access to CD-ROMs and an OPAC of some 25,000 MARC records.
Systems used in higher education libraries include Dynix, Aleph, Oracle, Voyager, Tinlib. The programmes of PHARE, TEMPUS and Mellon were instrumental in equipping libraries with hardware and software. Worries are now starting about the maintenance and update of systems: the oldest system is now 4 years old, and it is far from clear how the upkeep will be financed.
Public libraries on the whole have stand alone PCs for cataloguing (MicroIsis). The larger ones are on the verge of starting with using access to Internet for information provision. There are some, if isolated moves, towards networking with local libraries of higher education. Some of the larger city libraries have X.25 connections to other databases in the country.
The City Library of Budapest and its six library regions joined in developing their own software with a small Budapest software firm. About another 100 public libraries have decided also to use this software, largely on stand alone, single function machines. The cataloguing module (compatible with HUNMARC) is working, circulation and acquisition modules are under development. The software is however not networkable, data from or to other systems can presently neither be imported nor exported (although plans are in hand to address this issue), each library does it original in putting, often copying from the printed version of the national bibliography. Most public libraries therefore still buy bibliographic records on catalogue cards, supplied by the Library Bureau. The situation is unsatisfactory, but it is generally considered, that as so much effort has gone into this software development, it can not now be abandoned. However, in some larger cities, public libraries have decided to do just that and join up with the university library and their respective (commercial) system.
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Well over 30 major databases, produced by libraries (specialist libraries mostly, but also by e.g. the City Library Budapest), are available on the X.25 academic research network. The National Information Infrastructure Office maintains a database of these, and of Hungarian Library Gopher Servers (about 30), Hungarian OPACs on the Internet (presently about 20), and Hungarian WWW servers, of which there are about 27 (a number growing daily), most of them including library information or links to the library server.
The number of libraries providing on-line bibliographical databases is increasing by the day with the advancement in library automation.
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It was in 1987 that the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the National Committee for Technical Development jointly launched the so called Information Infrastructure - IIF - Programme to establish a modern information network for the entire Hungarian academic and research community. Domestic, World Bank and PHARE funding contributed to the creation by 1994 of a national infrastructure with a service portfolio for the academic and research community close to that of many Western European countries, comprising e-mail, message handling, ftp, directory and bulletin board services etc. This went hand in hand with the development of databases of common interest, including OPACs of the larger libraries available via dozens of regional LANs and MANs, connected via X.25 into HBONE, the Hungarian backbone network (using IP technology, aiming at 30 national nodes). HUNGARNET , the association of the Hungarian academic and research network, comprises some 300 institutions, 15% of which cover public collections and libraries and is a full member of TERENA (the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association) and CEENet, the association of the Central and Eastern European academic and research networking organisation.
National priorities for networking are seen to be the creation of national union catalogues, followed by the development of common retrieval interfaces for libraries using different integrated systems, followed by a system for electronic interlibrary document ordering and lending.
Development and co-ordination of this national information infrastructure NII programme is carried out by a central NII Office with a special department for libraries, which ensures that the needs of libraries, mainly of course academic libraries, are taken into account.
Some bigger cities are in the process of realising co-operation across different types of libraries, such as Szeged and Debrecen, where a number of libraries have chosen the same automation system and are developing joint library and information services.
HUSLONET , the Hungarian-Slovak Network between five Higher Education libraries in two Hungarian and one Slovak towns (close to the border and with Hungarian minorities) is an initiative implemented in summer 1995 with an extensive planning phase to select hard- and software (Dataware - Voyager / Logicraft) and secure finances (by the Mellon foundation) to network OPACs via the Hungarian research network and share CD-ROM's via a common gateway. The network will symbolically be inaugurated in October 1995, with six large databases uploaded for joint use. This networked co-operation, together with the PHARE project for Hungarian-Romanian public library co-operation, have a special meaning in the context of the bilateral negotiations concerning Hungarian minorities in the neighbouring countries.
CALIBRE - Common Access to Libraries in Europe - is a joint project of DOBIS/LIBIS users, in Hungary (the National Library), Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium to co-operate on improving and exploiting the software.
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The Centre for Library Science at the National Library, now 61 staff, is charged with providing professional education and training, dealing with library theory and practice, conducting research and projects and issuing professional publications. The centre is also in charge of library statistics, canvasses for funds for libraries from foundations and houses the secretariat of the Hungarian Reading Association. The fate of its various activities is very much tied up with decisions on cuts to be imposed on the National Library, but it is hoped that much valued publications such as the National Library journal or the Hungarian Library and Information Science Abstracts will not have to cease publication. It also takes great care in servicing the professional community with relevant information, such as the database MANCI, including (since 1986) citations and abstracts in Hungarian of professional articles of interest to Hungarian Librarians from 200 journals (supplied as floppy to other libraries).
The Centre see priorities for professional education and training needs under the headings curriculum revision, information technology, modern library management and (specialised) language training. This accords with the views of the other professional institutions and associations.
There are five major departments of library and information science , in Budapest, Debrecen, Szombathely, Nyiregyhaza and Szeged. Curricula are in the process of extensive revision, postgraduate degrees can now be obtained. There is close European co-operation sponsored by PHARE with partner institutions in Holland, Germany, the UK and within professional associations such as EUCLID and BOBCATSSS - the abbreviation for a meanwhile well established co-operation between library schools in Barcelona, Oslo, Budapest, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Tampere, Sheffield, Szombathely and Stuttgart. Annual symposia are organised by the students and there is a vivid exchange of information and experience between these institutions.
The Library Association, a union of personal and institutional members, a very high profile and an active programme of events for all types of libraries, at all levels in all the regions. It has just successfully lobbied for the ministerial pronouncement of the "Year of Public Libraries" 1996 and will start this off with a nation-wide programme of events in October 1995. Its annual conference and its journal are prime channels for the dissemination of information. It attempts to organise in service training, but struggles with the problems of little motivation for the majority of librarians to participate (especially as they have to pay course fees out of their own pocket), not enough teachers to teach the most important subject e.g. information technology, and the language barrier (on both sides) preventing the use of foreign lecturers.
The Chamber of Libraries and Information Institutes comprises 214 institutions with 4 sections. Its aim is to protect and represent the interests of its member institutions and to shape the social image of libraries. It issues a regular bulletin about its activities and of information for its members and organises professional conferences.
The " College of the Directors of the Hungarian University Libraries " has been established by the directors of university libraries and aims at enhancing the social status of libraries (librarians) by improving the efficiency of academic libraries and the scientific information system. The group particularly concerns itself with legislative measures and the role of the library within the academic infrastructure.
A successful IFLA Round Table for the Management of Library Associations seminar on "How to run a democratic Library Association" was run last year by the Public Relations Office of the National Library, bringing together key persons from many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. One of the recommendations is to set up and run a monitored discussion list on the WWW (via the IFLA server or possibly Gabriel, the British Library's initiative for National Libraries) specifically dedicated to the issues of the Library Associations in Central and Eastern Europe.
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The library association, jointly with the National Library, organised the Regional Conference on Library Legislation (of which I attended the first day), at which the main issues of a possible new library law were discussed heatedly and profoundly. The professionals are realistic enough to recognise that politicians are reluctant to engage in long parliamentary debates about the library law, when the system is already jammed with other, more important law. It was all the more laudable that the organisers had been able to attract key note speakers from the ministries of finance, culture and education, justice and the interior to the above mentioned conference, which had been made possible by support from the Council of Europe and DG XIII - International Co-operation Department. The professionals debated with great commitment the pros and cons of a law versus regulatory acts covering such issues as legal deposit and whether services should be free or fee based. It looked like the solution favoured by most will be different regulatory acts complemented by a kind of Citizen's Charter for Libraries.
The free or fee question has in fact already been decided on by most libraries themselves, who have introduced registration fees (even the National Library charges for enrolment), borrowing charges for AV material etc.
Discussions about legal deposit , presently forcing publishers to surrender 16 copies, plus three for "administrative purposes!", are focusing on bringing this number down to 11, with publishers lobbying for as little as 6 copies. Those publishers not complying, said to be many, are in theory made to pay 500 Ft fine, which amounts to not much more than the average price of one copy of a book. It is easy to imagine that if the number of legal deposit copies is thus drastically reduced, those libraries excluded would suffer severely, both in respect of collection building and exchange agreements. This would probably hit hardest libraries outside of the capital now in receipt of legal deposit copies.
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Some 8,000 titles are now published per annum, with new publisher mushrooming by the day. Out of about 2-3,000 publishers only some 50 can be considered serious in terms of library needs. A VAT of 12% is levied on books, breach of copyright is not considered a problem. A number of publications exist that lay claim to being the Hungarian Books in Print , but it is hard to say which is the most comprehensive one, as no comparison exists between the respective coverage of the different publications, and the future of some of these appear to be uncertain.
The two major publications are a database (said to be the most comprehensive) produced by a private company in collaboration with the German Booksellers Association, "Index Könyvadatbazis" 1992 ff 19,900 Ft, offered on floppy with the promise of a future CD-ROM. No one is quite sure whether subscription to this is tied to orders. There is also a printed listing twice a month in (horrible grey) book form with long abstracts produced by the Library Bureau, a non profit making kind of library supply organisation (like Askews in the UK or EKZ in Germany) that includes entries for a 40% discount on published price, offering ordering and catalogue card supply facilities to libraries. For the time being, a publication called "Magyar Books in Print" is commonly subscribed to by libraries, but its future is uncertain and its coverage of the book production patchy.
A big problem for libraries is how to find out what is available on the book market. The best way is to go to the book shop and have a look and buy. Supplies through book shops work well - however, this applies largely to Budapest, whereas in the country the shops do not carry a large enough range of Hungarian books to satisfy library needs.
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The Cultural Foundation of the Ministry of Education and Culture supports, amongst other things, also applications for library development. The Central Public Library in Budapest has, inter alia, received funds for e.g. the building up of their database of literary criticism or for the database of new Hungarian books.
The " Catching up with European Higher Education " programme is an interdepartmental programme of the government, extending also to funding applications for library development.
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The PHARE budget for Hungary amounts to about 90m ECU p.a. Throughout its changing programme priorities over the now almost 5 years of its existence, close attention has been paid to the education system, with a large share allocated to TEMPUS and the encouragement of the transfer of know-how and institution building - aspects which also made it possible for libraries to benefit from PHARE funds:
Many of the projects in the education sector are said to have a book or information component, in that often ordering of literature is included as part of the bid. Projects for the re-structuring of higher education establishments usually include the library in some way, as it is seen as an integral part in a well functioning institution (the university library Szeged got all its furniture from PHARE funds !). There is unfortunately no list of projects that specifically included support to a library.
New PHARE programmes with relevance to information and books are:
- Strengthen Links between Education and Economy - 8m ECU;
- Multi Country Programmes / Education MCP - special section Distance Education (pilot action 1m ECU to set up);
- Jean Monnet Professorship Programme (includes book provision).
A main area of information activity of the PHARE office is the setting up of European Documentation Centres . Apparently a two year negotiation with various ministries is now on the verge of resulting in two things:
- 5000 ECU each will be spent on CD-ROMs and books for all 20 ministries;
- 60,000 ECU will be given to the parliamentary library for hard- and software and literature to set up an EDC. As this library is not really frequented by the general public, I suggested that the Budapest City library and its excellent network in the capital (and nation-wide) should be considered as an EDC.
There are already six European Documentation Centres (four in Budapest, one each in Pecs and Szeged) but their effectiveness remains yet to be seen.
The most recent PHARE library project aims at developing pilot modern public library and information services in Hungary and Romania in co-operation with partners in UK, Netherlands and Greece.
The PHARE office is also interested in the subject of business information , e.g. the initiative of the library of the university of economics to set up a business information service, networked with other relevant libraries (e.g. Business College library and also the EDC in the university) and linked into their TEMPUS business information project (including Aberdeen, Leicester, Copenhagen, Barcelona).
Early infrastructure programmes by PHARE included support to the national Information Infrastructure programme (see paragraph 4.3 above), continued now in a three phase plan for the networking of six Cⅇ countries, including the interconnection with EuropaNET, telematics feasibility studies and implementation of telematics projects.
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A useful booklet lists TEMPUS priorities for all countries of Central and Eastern Europe. For Hungary this includes (with relevance to libraries): European Studies, comprehensive development of the institution as a whole, curriculum development, university management.
An interesting present TEMPUS project is : LISTEN - Development of a Library and Information Science between Hungarian, German, Danish and UK departments of Library Science, aiming at curriculum reform and joint research.
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The head office of the Open Society is co-located in Budapest with the Central European University, covering 20 countries in its regional library programme (documented separately). The emphasis regarding support to Hungarian library development is on automation. This will be reflected in the 'Regional Conference on Library Automation', which, as discussed and agreed, will be organised in conjunction with DGXIII/E-4 and will treat a variety of subjects such as retroconversion, standards, formats, networking, and is planned for April 1996 in Budapest.
The Open Society will invite and pay for 150 participants from the 20 countries covered by the regional libraries programme. This includes all the 10 countries that have signed the association agreement with the EU plus Croatia, Albania and republics of the former Soviet Union. Announcements about the conference will be distributed via the national offices asking experts to apply for participation.
An announcement will be circulated asking for papers on the themes identified by a steering group to experts in Cⅇ and the EU. The steering group (including an expert from DG XIII/E-4) will meet at the end of January 1996 to select papers and discuss applications of participants. Key note papers will be on (and by a representative of) the Telematics for Libraries Programme and the Open Society's regional library programme.
The programme could include the following:
- East-West Workshop on Retroconversion;
- Workshop on "How to submit project proposals" - rules and conditions...
- Session / Workshop on "How to choose a system" making, use of an up-dated version our automation packs originally produced for the Southern European countries.
It is hoped and expected to attract exhibitors for library automation and networking from all over Europe. The invitation to exhibitors will inter alia be distributed by DG XIII/E-4. There may well be a joint stand of the Telematics for Libraries Programme with PHARE and TEMPUS.
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The situation of libraries in Hungary is complex, not so much because of the multitude of developments and initiatives, but because of the multitude of plans with remedies for current ills and visions for the future and the confusion over resulting actions. The old order has broken down but not quite, the tackling of new tasks has begun but a pattern is emerging only gradually, anxiety over a secured future is breeding competition rather than co-operation.
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European Commission
DG Information Society
Cultural Heritage Applications Unit
Contact: Digicult
e-mail: digicult@ec.europa.eu
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