A modern church library?

About a special group of special libraries in Hungary: ecclesiastical-denominational libraries

Abstract

The author describes the fate of church libraries from the mid-20th century to the change of regime, and their search for a new path in the decades after that. Church libraries in Hungary have come a long way in the past three decades. They had to compensate for the fifty years of backwardness on the one hand, and had to keep pace with the achievements of renewing and ever-changing „secular” libraries on the other. Catching up has been faster for some, slower for others. Amid political, social, economic and professional changes, the situation of their managers, librarians and libraries has also changed. A continuous renewal is still noticeable today. (The article is based on a lecture delivered on 28 June 2022 at the Conference of the Association of Church Librarians, EKE, under the title Renewal after Covid – in an ever-changing world, within the Cultural year under the motto Renewal organized by the Pannonhalma Archabbey.)