Reflections on the work of the Third National Conference of Librarions

Abstract

The Third National Conference of Librarians was organized in Budapest on December 15–17, 1970. The Conference had been thoroughly prepared by five working-committees on

I. Library and public education;

II. Library, education, and the training of experts;

III. Library and information – science and production. This section handled problems connected with the library and information services in the fields of industry, agriculture and food, and public health;

IV. Training and in-service training of librarians and documentalists;

7. Central library services.

The Conference discussed the reports and recommendations submitted by the five working-committees.

The Conference established that over the past 15 years libraries together with special information institutes and centres had proceeded in line with the country’s social, economic and cultural development, paying due attention to social needs. At the same time, it has also been found that social needs do not always appear with the same strength in each branch of industry and culture. The Conference deems it as an essential task to eliminate this contradiction and analyse its causes.

The fifteen-year development has led to a sound relationship between libraries and information centres. In the industrial and agricultural field, technical information activities are generally performed and realized within the framework of sectoral information centres and institutions with libraries forming only part of this organization. In the field of social sciences, however, information institutions developed from libraries are taking shape.

A paper read at the Conference elaborated an “ideal model” of a special reference library, and this paper also made recommendations for the reorganization of the network of technical libraries so that they might better adapt themselves to the needs of industrial branches.

As regards training and in-service training, the Conference found that – despite all efforts and results – the information manpower supply falls short of the requirements both in quality and quantity. All educational institutions should make efforts to increase professional commitment, to update curricula, and introduce more flexible forms of training, including post-graduate forms. The Conference proposed that long- and medium-range plans should be worked out to develop further library automation, to construct storage libraries, to complete the construction of the new National Library, as well as to draw up a new library law.