Bulletin 2004 [antikvár]

PLAN FOR THE ESTÁBLISHMENT OF A EUROPEAN CENTRE OF BOOK HISTORYIn the tasks defined in the deed of Foundation of the Hungárián national library and in the legal doc-uments regulating its activity, scientific research is qualified as an area of special emphasis. The scientific research work is directed principally at the study of its own holdings and by its nature falls in the field of book history. The organised catalogu-ing and study of documents of Hungárián rele-vance not found in Hungary is alsó an important task of the library, one which cannot be carried out without close co-operation with members of foreign collections, research and higher education institutions. There is a growing demand among experts dealing with book history research in the European countries for research of a comparative nature and this is one of the reasons why the Hungárián national library has expanded its foreign relations. The heads of the National Széchényi Library and the Institute of Literary Scholarship of the Hungárián Academy of Sciences have therefore decided to establish a European Centre of Book History to provide a framework for the already existing research and co-operation. The proposed centre will operate in the library, and the HAS will support it not only through professional co-oper-ation and the co-ordination of plans of work but alsó by piacing an "academic research group" here.H Aims of the centre, its membersand managementThe main aims of the centre are the following:research on Hungárián book history (pub-lishing, binding, illustration, trade, libraries, reading, small prints, press); the co-ordination of Hungárián research, exploring sources, producing bibliographies and summaries,compilation of a retrospective bibliography of Hungárián books and periodicals,research on the European links of Hungárián book history,organised co-operation with European book history workshops and professional commu-nities in Hungary and elsewhere,participation in European comparative book history research,creation and operation of a humanities litera-ture database.The head of the centre will be the director gener-ál of the National Széchényi Library or the deputy director generál for scholarly affairs. An interna-tional board of trustees will ensure professional supervision of the work of the centre; its members will be nominated by the heads of the National Széchényi Library and the Institute of Literary Scholarship of the Hungárián Academy of Sciences after consultation with die HAS Working Committees on Book History and Press History, and appointed for a period of one year by the director generál of the library. The board of trustees will meet annually or as necessary. The central research programme will be adopted by the generál assembly convened annually. The presidents and secretaries of the HAS Committee on Cultural History and the Working Committees on Book History and Press History must alsó be invited to the generál assembly.Members of the centre:foreign invited researchers (who do not receive a remuneration),Hungárián invited researchers (who do not receive a remuneration),members of the HAS research group (remu-nerated by the HAS),researchers of the National Széchényi Library whose research area is related to the institu-tional aims (the library supports their activity with research days),employees of the National Széchényi Library given the assignment of attaining the objectives of the centre (remunerated by the library).The head of the centre will be responsible for co-ordinating scholarly research carried out in all areas of the library; the following organisational units, either existing or to be created, belong under his/ her direct supervision:HAS-OSZK Research Group on Early Biblio-graphic Relics,l6th-18th Century Book History Department,19th-20th Century Book History Department,Press History Department,Humanities Literature Bibliography Department,special collections: Collection of Early Books, Manuscript Collection, Map Collection, Collection of Theatre History, Music Collection, Collection of Historical Interviews, Restoration Department, Cistercian Antal Reguly Historic Library at Zirc.