Library activities and perspectives og the Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Centre (OMKDK)

Abstract

The Library of the Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Centre (OMKDK) may look baclc upon 85 years of activities. Now it is one of the country'a largest technical libraries. Over the past decades it has generally tended to meet the library requirements on all levele of the technological field. Today - in a qualitatively new phase of the relationship between science and production - it has to face the unambiguous task of complying with the library requirements of both the specialists and the organizatione of production and technological development. Another basic task of the Library is to make Professional literature available for the documentation activities. There tasks have been carried on, for more than a decade, within one organizational structure, and - based on reasonable cooperation - have proved exceedingly useful as regards both the library and the documentation aspects of OMKDK's work.
Most important among the Library'e collections are: books (269.664 volumes); periodicals (90.902 volumes); translations of journal articles /309.802 items). Enriched by the most recent literature, there collectione have increased two to threefold over the past ten to fifteen years. The collections serve as a reliable basis for documentation. The products of documentation (card files of abstracting and current awareness services, literature searching), on the other hand, broaden the information basis and reference services of the Library.
Data on the Library's uaere and clrculatlon in 1968 show a lb -i lnorease aa compared to 1967. In comparlaon with the corresponding figures of other large scitetific libraries in Hungary, there data show that OMKDK ranks among the most heavily used libraries. The number of registered readers - whose majority is made up of engineers, technicians, and skilled workers - was 12.306; 120.399 readers used the reading rooms or borrowed documents, while the number of items used in the reading rooms or lent approximeted to 400.000. A prominent role is also being played by the Library in inter-library loans on both national and international level.
The Library also carries on considerable bibliographic work by recommending Hungarian and Russian technical literature, and by processing the literature of certain important subject fields.
The shortage of storage space and the necessity to modemize library equipments cause serious troubles to the Library.
In a study, the Library's leaders have elaborated a project concerning tha modernisation and development of the whole library work. The study considers the requirements and conditions of the Library's operation, the estimated increase in the holdings, and tha desirable pace of development.
Taking 1968 into account, library services rendered by OMKDK take a prominent place in the national system of technical and economic information.