Public information services in the Budapest Szabó Ervin Library, Hungary

Abstract

In the Library, a public information service has been going on since 1987. In 1990 it was extended by taking over the functions of the special phone-answerlng inquiry services run so far by the Hungarian Telecommunication Company, together with the necessary manpower and technical equipment. An exception was the services concerning telecommunication - related inquries that were left at HTC. This changes meant for the Szabó Ervin Library an immediate eight-fold growth of the inquiry trafflc for a two-fold increase of manpower, i.e., handling 1200 calls daily using 8 telephone lines. Further growth depends in the expansion of line capacities. According to a recent survey, 62 percent of all inquries cover really public information needs, the fraction of "lexical queries" is 23 percent, the share of leisure time inquiries and those related with actual events is 10 percent each. A development prospect is to organize a personal call service. An information service about US universities and a legal document search and copy service has been realized already.