Role of digital libraries in Hungary in the dlgitalization of and providing access to the nation's cultural heritage

Abstract

In Hungary, from the beginning of eighties online databases have been made available for users. Digitized products in Hungárián language have appeared on the Internet in the first half of the nineties. The Hungárián Electronic Library and the John Neumann Digital Library have served the public interested in generál and special literature in Hungárián since 1994 and 1997, resp. Since, in addition to the two „purely" virtual libraries, several hundred libraries, museums and archives have joined the digitalization program of the national cultural heritage. The Neumann Library's Web-Kat.hu database available at Hungárián servers provides excellent possibilities for reading and analyzing documents. The database had about 100,000 records in mid-February 2002. Using the online catalogue, Internet sources within the Hungárián cultural heritage have been explored.