National bibliographic information policy in Hungary: "Preliminary system plan" and its environment

Abstract

Coherent government policy on library and bibliographic information matters has not been established in Hungary yet. Past efforts to develop national information policy had not gone beyond guidelines on paper, due to the lack of government interest. In the last two or three years, however, the Committee on Science Policy, a government agency, has put the issue on its agenda. The Committee took up its position on the directives expressed in a preliminary document by the Working Committee On Bibliographic Information - discussed in the present publication - and requested the elaboration of the concepts of a national bibliographic information system. A "Preliminary system plan" of these concepts has been completed. The main features of these guidelines are: to elevate library and information issues to the level of governmental control because no other alternative seems to be feasible; to adopt the principle of selective development; to improve access to information on networks, creating thus a dynamical information system; to determine three categories of libraries in the dynamical and interest-driven cooperation: core libraries, intermediary libraries, and receptor libraries. The study describes the tasks, the functions needed for their execution, and the necessary technology.