During the conference, delegates will have the option of joining one of a number of walking tours of Budapest’s finest libraries. There are 7 tours to choose from:
Tour 1
Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Manuscript and Old and Rare Book Collection)
The Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is based on the 30,000 volumes donated by the Academy’s first president, Count József Teleki (1790–1855), to the Learned Society in 1826. With this collection, 600 manuscript volumes and 409 incunabula (books printed before 1500) were acquired by the Library, whose Department of Manuscripts has been an independent unit since 1861. Its first head was archaeologist and art historian Flóris Rómer (1815–1889), a regular member of the Academy. Although incunables and old Hungarian books have always been committed to the care of the Department, it was only in 1891 that their classification in sixteen orders was finished and a catalogue was made accessible to the public. The Department’s Rare Book Division was set up in 1954. In the same year, the bulk of pre-1800 foreign and pre-1850 Hungarian books was transferred to the Department from the Library’s main stacks.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: Palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1051 Budapest, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Approx. travel time (walking) and distance from Central European University: 2 minutes.
Tour 2
Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Oriental Collection)
Description:
Although the necessity to form a separate Oriental Collection was stated by Hungarian scholars already in the 19th century, this collection was only established as a special unit within the Library thanks to the efforts of the then Vice-President, the outstanding Orientalist Louis Ligeti (1902–1987), after the restructuring of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1949. The Collection, known at that time as the Oriental Library, was opened in 1951 on the ground floor of the Palace of the Academy to become the main reference library of Oriental studies in Hungary. Its development, including the Oriental design of its reading room, praises the Turcologist László Rásonyi who headed the Collection from 1951–1961. He selected its stock from the old divisions of the Library. In addition to contemporary monographs, the Collection became enriched by 16th–18th-century books written about the Orient or in Oriental languages. The holdings also include the most comprehensive Hungarian collection of periodicals of Oriental studies together with unique manuscripts. The acquisition of the periodicals started in the 19th century, therefore the collection holds complete serials from these most prestigious journals. From among the manuscripts the Tibetan, Turkish and Hebrew collections are of international importance, the majority of which were donated to the Library. In addition to the special units described a few manuscripts from Ethiopia, India and the Far-East are also to be found here.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: Palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1051 Budapest, Széchenyi István tér 9.
Approx. travel time (walking) and distance from Central European University: 2 minutes.
Tour 3
Library of the Central European University
Description:
The Central European University (CEU) Library’s mission is to provide exemplary library and academic information services in support of teaching, learning, and research. Building on our traditional values of promoting openness, we serve the CEU community in Vienna and the academic and research public in Budapest along with Central and Eastern Europe. Together with campus partners, the CEU Library develops new and augments existing library services in response to changes in pedagogy and the research needs of the CEU faculty and students. This contributes to enhancing CEU’s leadership position as an academic institution of excellence in the humanities and social sciences, business, law, and public policy.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: Central European University, H-1051 Budapest, Nádor u. 15.
Approx. travel time (walking) and distance from Central European University: 0 minutes.
Tour 4
Description:
Hungary’s National Széchényi Library was founded in 1802. It owes its establishment and name to the highly patriotic Hungarian aristocrat, Count Ferenc Széchényi. At the end of the 18th century, he sought out Hungarian books in Hungary and abroad and brought them together into one single collection, which he donated to the nation in 1802. In the following year the public library, available to all, was opened in Pest. Aiming at comprehensive coverage, National Széchényi Library collects publications and prints of any kind produced in Hungary, receiving two deposit copies of each, non-book materials (sound recordings, video materials, documents in electronic forms, etc.), works published abroad in the Hungarian language, written by Hungarian authors, translated from Hungarian or related to Hungary, as well as manuscripts in Hungarian or related to Hungary. In addition to the material listed above, which is dubbed “hungarica”, the Library also collects literature connected with other Finno-Ugrian people, since the Hungarian language belongs to this family of languages, and also literature related to neighboring countries.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: H-1827 Budapest, Buda Castle, “F” Building
Approx. travel time and distance from Central European University: 20 minutes (public transport + walking).
Tour 5
Library of the Hungarian Parliament
Description:
The library of the Hungarian Parliament is a legislative library, a public library and a special library all in one. Law and public administration, political science, 20th century and contemporary history are its main interests. It collects all domestic titles that cover these fields and a selection of related foreign titles. The library has the biggest public collection of Hungarian parliamentary documents and a selective collection of Hungarian history, modern world history, economics, sociology, statistics and documents from foreign parliaments. It is a depository library of the United Nations, some of its specialised agencies and The European Union. In the reading room, approximately 45.000 documents are available in 12 different subject areas. The size of the holdings is approximately 600.000 volumes, and annual acquisitions are close to 5000 pieces.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: H-1055 Budapest, Kossuth Lajos tér 1-3.
Approx. travel time (walking) and distance from Central European University: 15 minutes.
Tour 6
Eötvös Loránd University Library and Archives
Description:
The library was founded by Miklós Oláh, archbishop of Esztergom, in 1561. It became a university library in 1635 when Péter Pázmány founded the university of Nagyszombat. The Royal Hungarian University and the library moved to Buda together in 1777, then to Pest in 1784. The present library building was built in 1876 according to the plans of Antal Skalnitzky. The most beautiful room is the Main Reading Room. It is more than 200 square meters and receives natural light through the glass ceiling; in addition, its walls are decorated with frescoes painted by Károly Lotz. The library holds nearly 2 million documents, including books and journals supporting the current university education and research. In addition, there are 185 codices (14 of them are corvina), about 1,200 ancient prints, several valuable manuscripts, 11,000 antiquities from the XVI century, as well as 15,000 baroque and 75,000 volumes from the XVIII century.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: H-1053 Budapest, Ferenciek tere 6.
Approx. travel time (walking) and distance from Central European University: 15 minutes.
Tour 7
Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library
Description:
The establishment of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library was accepted by the City’s General Assembly in 1903, and in 2004 it celebrated the 100th anniversary of its opening. The institution was set up by the combination of two special libraries ensuring the material, financial, and staff conditions were recorded in the Rules for Operation. In 1927, the City Council purchased the beautiful Neo-Baroque Wenckheim Palace, built in 1889, in the centre of Budapest (in the so-called palace quarter set up in the Reformation Age). After four years of reconstruction, the library was opened in 1931. From 1955 the Central Library was qualified as the main library within the network as well as the national resource library in social sciences and modern world history. It also has a nationwide range of influence serving the reference library system and systematically explores material on national sociology. The Music Collection was established in 1964, and in 1968 the library was qualified as the national resource library in sociology. The use of the Central Library housed in the Wenckheim Palace has been growing rapidly since 1952. Registered users are mainly intellectuals and increasingly students.
Tour starts: TBA
Tour ends: TBA
Max number of places: TBA
Location: H-1088 Budapest, Szabó Ervin tér 1.
Approx. travel time (walking) and distance from Central European University: 30 minutes walking or 20 minutes by public transport.