History of the Hungarian National Library

Monok, István (2008) History of the Hungarian National Library. ALEXANDRIA, 20 (3). pp. 143-149. ISSN 0955-7490

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Abstract

The library structure which still operates in Hungary today took shape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The secular organizations of society at first organized their own collections together with the church libraries. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the rise of the urban bourgeoisie led to the establishment of numerous institutions not tied to the churches (clubs, educational societies, reading circles, and so on). The libraries of aristocrats (for example the library of Count József Teleki and his wife Kata Bethlen, the Festetics family, and the Ráday family) and scholars were the most important for the development of book collecting in Hungary. The idea of establishing the Hungarian national library emerged together with the intention to set up the national scholarly society, an academy of sciences. The collection is based on the library of Count Ferenc Széchényi donated for the establishment of a national library. It was first called Széchényi National Library, and operated within the frame of the National Museum up to 1949. Under the direction of the far-sighted minister of culture József Eötvös the library was made an important part of cultural policy, and its function expanded. Besides acquiring and preserving Hungarian-related documents great emphasis was placed on their scholarly processing and on research work. The National Széchényi Library became an independent institution in 1949 and occupied its present place in the Buda Castle Palace in 1985. The national library is an active member of the international library community, making great efforts to ensure its presence as an institution in international forums dealing with research on the history of books and libraries.

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