Chapters from the history of Hungarian library policies (1945–1956)

Chapters from the history of Hungarian library policies (1945–1956)

Chapters from the history of Hungarian library policies (1945–1956)
Edited by: Péter Sonnevend
Co-editing and index made by Ferenc Kégli
NSZL–Gondolat Publishers, Budapest, 2018.
[National Collection, Series edited by László Boka, Ferenc Kégli], 342 pages
ISBN 978 963 200 678 9

Language: 
Hungarian
2 900,- Ft
Available

It is good to know the past that still lives with us to learn about our present and future. The current situation of our profession, including higher education for librarians, regional library network and national public specialized libraries, is in many aspects related to the post-1945 period. Our volume of essays presents the results of a teamwork that started a couple of years ago: some papers have already been published in specialized periodicals and the authors made presentations at two conferences.

The twelve years called Rákosi-era were characterized by an unprecedented rupture (discontinuity) in Hungary’s life, including the world of libraries. During the past decade, Hungarian academic research has shown great interest in the cultural Sovietization of post-war Hungary in fields like literary science and arts. The essays of this volume belong to this trend and add to the international efforts to interpret the relation between dictatorship and library policy.

During the period studied, librarians and collections were regularly rearranged, as one of the chapters explains. (At a later moment, also the “rearrangement” of readers might be analyzed.) The papers that follow describe further essential problems of the Rákosi-era leaning on archived and public sources and pointing at several issues of today’s library policy and library society that stem from previous facts like the forced paths of the one-time library policy, the building of the librarian education structure, the activity of the National Library Centre (1945–1952), and the development of school and children’s library provision.

Ferenc Kégli, György Pogány, Rózsa Gabriella Pogányné, Péter Sonnevend and Katalin Varga, the authors of the present volume, are experienced specialists of the field, known for the readers for decades.

National Collection

National Collection is a joint book series of National Széchényi Library and Gondolat Publishing House that started in 2010 with the purpose of continuing the previous series National Széchényi Library Publications (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Kiadványai) and National Széchényi Library Booklets (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár Füzetei), keeping their values alive. It is a collection of publications on history of culture, press, books, library and library informatics that all relate to the Hungarian national library or its collections. Apart from studies and conference materials, National Collection also publishes special bibliografies and catalogues based upon the Hungarica resources at NSZL, providing help for the further research of Hungarian culture history.