Bulletin 2002 [antikvár]

A FOREWORD TO THE STRATEGIC PLANS OF THE NATIONAL SZÉCHÉNYI LIBRARYTHE PAST AND THE FUTURE OF OUR NATIONAL LIBRARYThe Hungarian national library drew up Us medium-term strategic plans in 2001. AH the sections of the National Széchényi Library took an active part in this project. The introduction of the document, summarising the traditional and new tasks of the national library, was written by Director General István Monok.The basic underlying principles were defined by Ferenc Széchényi himself when he established the library (1802: Bibliotheca Regnicolaris), and have remained unchanged. They referred mainly to the way of enriching the collection, as he suggests that the library should collect all the documents published in Hungary, or the ones issued outside the country but of Hungarian relevance. Over the past two hundred years, however, the strategic plans outlining the national library's specific tasks and development directions have had to be reformulated in each period. In the last four years, the laws regulating the operation of the library have been amended. Within the library, the Library Institute has been set up, and in line with the State Administration Act, the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage as the main-tainer of the library has drawn up the new 'charter'.By the end of the 20th century the library celebrating its 200"1 anniversary was working in a completely different environment. Although it cannot radically change its principles of developing the collection, the quantity and especially the quality of documents to be acquired has undergone changes that have necessitated a strategic plan better adjusted to the new environment. To meet the needs of the information society, this step had to be taken by most national libraries in Europe. The Hungarian national library co-operated very closely with its counterparts, planning together and carrying out jointly elaborated projects.The IT Government Committee of the Prime Minister's Office has elaborated the 'Strategy' of the National IT Society', which is the immediate framework to which the Hungarian national library wishes to adjust its measures. Thus, it intends to draw attention to the national institutions without which no strategic plan can be executed.The Hungarian network of libraries is a well-organised institutional system. Unfortunately, over the past two decades the Government failed to take the necessary steps in order to co-ordinate special library-centred information technology, guiding it in a clearly defined direction.As a result, in its short and medium-term plans, this network of libraries is obliged to spend considerable energy and resources on creating the technical background to meaningful co-operation. The joint plans of the community of librarians2 constitute the closer framework to which our strategies have been adjusted.It is a common element in all the theories on the future of European national libraries that (1) they cannot give up collecting, locating and preserving the full range of documents, (2) in the course of their undertaking, they have to change fundamentally the system of their means to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by IT (electronic bibliographies, catalogues and collections), and thus (3) they should create a much higher quality of library services. Scientific basic research is among the tasks of all national libraries, realised in different ways, depending on national features and a particular library's history. (For instance: the German national library in Frankfurt-am-Main never dealt with early German books, as this has always been the area of provincial libraries and the Leipzig library. Another example could be the Warsaw national library, which has always been the publisher of major literary and art journals.) The community of national libraries in Europe and its main forum, the Conference of European National Librarians, of which the Hungarian national library is an active member, worked out the forms of co-operation3, fully observing the above-mentioned differences.1National Information Society. Strategy. 1.0. Prepared by the IT Government Committee of the Prime Minister's Office Budapest, 2001.2Judit Skaiiczki: The telematic concept of the strategic development plans of Hungarian libraries. Tudományos és Műszaki Tájékoztatás 46 (1999) 1,3-6.3About these see: Europe's National Libraries. 15 years of joint programmes. The Hague, 2001, Conference of European National Librarians, or much more detailed information: http://www.kb.nl/gabriel