Some questions of acquisition of periodicals in the research institutes of the Hungarian Academy od Sciences

Abstract

The analysis aims at the formulation of the characteristic features of acquiring foreign, non-socialist periodicals, with especial view to overlappings among institutes. Another objective of the analysis is to define some typical index-numbers and to outline the method of defining such index-numbers.

The study covers some 95 per cent of the periodical holdings. The term periodical is understood in a broad sense.

First the distribution of the periodicals is examined in context with the full holdings of ordered, i.e. subscribed, periodicals, then the holdings of the scientific and technical research institutes, as well as in the field of the social sciences are given detailed analysis. Finally, by comparing the resulting data on the two main groups, the author points out that scientific and technical periodicals form the overwhelming majority of the material, and that the acquisition of periodicals shows a disproportionate distribution.

In its concluding part, the study makes recommendations for a more up-to-date and reasonable system of the periodical supply of biological research institutes; outlines what are considered as necessary conditions and the process of developing such a system. In Hungary, for the time being, biological sciences offer favourable opportunities for constructing models for such systems, thus the author gives an outline of periodical supply system in the biological field.