After several years of preparation, self-service borrowing and return based on radio frequency identification became available in our library.

In the past two years, more than 200 000 documents have been RFID tagged, allowing books to be borrowed in seconds without the help of a librarian at the dedicated terminals. After identification with a library card, you can simply place all the documents you want to borrow in the designated area of the terminal. After automatic recognition, the system validates the loan and sends an e-mail or prints a paper receipt.

Two terminals have been installed in our building, one in the lobby and one at the circulation desk. Besides the lending service, these self-service terminals allow you to check out live loans and extend deadlines. The device in the lobby also offers the possibility of returning books beyond the opening hours of the library, during the time period when the building is open.

The installation of the devices is part of a four-year university-wide development, which started in 2021. Coordinated by the University Library and Archives, the new service will be continuously available in the member libraries of the University Library Service (faculty, dormitory libraries). The innovative technology supports not only lending but also library background work, including automatic inventories.

We wish all visitors to enjoy using the new devices.

The ELTE University Library and Archives will be open from the 27th of February 2023 with full opening hours.

Our full range of services are available between 9.00 and 20.00 on weekdays, and on Saturdays between 10.00 and 18.00 the Information Desk is open, as well as the Reading Hall for study and reading on site.

As part of our constantly expanding services, the lobby is accessible two hours before and after opening hours with a valid library card to use the self-services provided. The following services are available from 7.00 to 9.00 and from 20.00 to 22.00 on weekdays, as well as from 8.00 to 10.00 and from 18.00 to 20.00 on Saturdays:

• return of books using a self-checkout terminal and our Bibliobox,
• printing and photocopying with a pre-purchased card,
• coffee and snack machines, comfortable armchairs for consumption.

Please note that during these extra time periods, the Information Desk is not open, so it is not possible to register, purchase printer and photocopier cards or use the toilets due to the closure of the 1st floor.

Everyone is welcome and we wish our students a successful spring semester!

The records of students who obtained a doctorate at the university are now available from 1894. At the time, the University of Budapest still had four faculties (Humanities, Law and Political Science, Theology and Medicine), and doctoral degrees were awarded in all faculties.

In 1949, the Faculty of Natural Sciences was formed from the Faculty of Humanities, so from then on it was also possible to obtain a doctorate there. The doctoral records in the archive contain a total of 40239 names: the names of all students who obtained a doctoral degree at our university between 1894 and 1950. In the index, the doctor’s name, date of birth (if it can be found in the register), their field of study, and the academic year in which they obtained their degree are included with the archival reference of the relevant document. 

The index is avalaible in our repository.

Support the restoration of old Hungarian books of the ELTE University Library and Archives!

In 2023, we recommend the pieces of one of the most valuable collections of the University Library, the ‘Old Hungarian Prints Collection’ to adopt.

This collection of more than 3000 pieces contains the earliest works from the beginning of book printing to 1711 in Hungarian, by Hungarian authors or with Hungary as the location of print. Since these books play a very special role in the Hungarian cultural heritage, they are of priceless value for our country. Due to the almost continuous, extensive use, the collection is now in strongly need of restoration.

By supporting the restoration of the volumes, you can contribute to the survival of our national treasures. For more information, please visit our website.

ELTE EISZ subscription

In 2023, the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) will subscribe to the following databases via Electronic Information Service National Program (EISZ) consortia:

1. Akadémiai Kiadó Folyóiratcsomag 
2. Akadémiai Kiadó Magyar Elektronikus Referenciamű Szolgáltatás (MeRSZ) 
3. Brill Foreign Law Guide 
4. Cambridge University Press (CUP) Journals – Full Collection 
5. CAS SciFindern 
6. Clarivate – InCites Benchmarking&Analytics 
7. Clarivate – Journal and Highly Cited Data (JHCD) 
8. Clarivate – Web of Science Core Collection 
9. EBSCO – Academic Search Complete 
10. Elsevier – ScienceDirect 
11. Elsevier – Scopus 
12. Emerald – The Case Journal 
13. IEEE All-Society Periodicals Package 
14. JSTOR – Essential Collection 
15. Kossuth Kiadó 
16. L’Harmattan Digitális Adatbázis 
17. MathSciNet 
18. Oxford Handbooks Online (OHO) – Law 
19. Springer Nature – Springer Journals (SpringerLink) 
20. SZAKTÁRS – Akadémiai Digitális Archívum 
21. SZAKTÁRS – Argumentum Kiadó 
22. SZAKTÁRS – Attraktor Kiadó 
23. SZAKTÁRS – Balassi Kiadó 
24. SZAKTÁRS – Gondolat Kiadó 
25. SZAKTÁRS – Napvilág Kiadó 
26. SZAKTÁRS – Osiris Kiadó 
27. SZAKTÁRS – Tinta Könyvkiadó – SzakKönyvTár 
28. Typotex – Interkönyv 
29. Wiley Online Library Full Collection 

SciFinder

Subscribers to the SciFinder-n database get access to the entire Scifinder Discovery Platform. The SciFinder Discovery Platform is a new, expanded service of CAS, which includes access to CAS Analytical Methods, CAS Formula and ChemZent in addition to SciFinder-n. More information about the service is available on the publisher's website.

L'Harmattan

The publisher is moving its scientific publications to a new platform. The move takes more time than planned.

After January 2023, the subscribed content can be accessed via IP identification. The introduction of the eduID service is expected by the end of March 2023. Therefore, VPN service can be used for remote access. The publisher is constantly uploading its older publications to the new interface, the L'Harmattan publications published since 2010 will be fully available on the new interface by the end of June.

SZAKTÁRS

The Academic Digital Archive and Argumentum Publishers are the new partners of SZAKTÁRS platform.

USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive

The Visual History Archive platform of the USC Shoah Foundation has been renewed and is now available on the new interface.

Springer e-book packages

The EISZ plans to enter into a framework contract with Springer to make e-book packages available in 2023, for which a 50% EISZ subsidy is also expected. The public procurement procedure has been initiated, according to the plans, a contract will be concluded in February. Orders for the packages will be accepted as soon as the contract is signed.

Separate subscriptions

In addition to the EISZ, you can access to the following databases until the 31th of December 2023:

1. Arcanum Digitheca
2. EBSCO Education Research Complete

We are pleased to answer any further questions regarding databases at eisz@lib.elte.hu.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, in 1773, Pope Clement XIII dissolved the Jesuit order, accelerating the process of the university's transfer to the state. Between 1635 and 1773, many distinguished Jesuits of great knowledge taught at our university, leaving a lasting mark on the history of the institution. In February our feature is on István Schönvisner, the father of Hungarian scientific archaeology.

István Schönvisner was born on the 15th of December 1738 in Sóvár, Sáros County. After studying at the Jesuit college in Eperjes, he enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1754, and in 1756 he applied for admission to the Jesuit order. He was ordained a priest in 1768, then taught in Trnava and Vienna. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1777, the queen appointed him the second keeper of the University Library. From then until the end of his life, he remained an employee of the library, in 1794 he became the director of the library. One of his important tasks was the management of the coin collection in the library. He also taught medal and antiquities at the university, during the academic year 1794/1795 he was the rector of the university. His scientific achievements include the excavation of the public bath in Aquincum, the elaboration of the history of Savaria (Szombathely), the three-volume catalog of Ferenc Széchényi’s medal collection and his work on the history of Hungarian medalology. Several of his manuscripts works have survived in his legacy, including a collection of diplomas relating to the history of the university, which can be found in the manuscript collection of our library today. 

The picture shows the first page of his university history manuscript.

The University Library and Archives has joined the National Library of Korea Digitized Material Service partnership programme.

Partner institutions have access to more than nine million digital documents, of which nearly one and a half million are books. In addition to Korean documents – old books, old maps, textbooks, general books, magazines, daily newspapers, children's books, musical scores – there are also materials in Japanese and foreign languages related to Korea. The content is available on designated terminals in three libraries, the Library of the Institute of East Asian Studies, the Library of Faculty of Education and Psychology and the University Library and Archives.

Object of the month – Cabaret poster

„The uncle. Collegium farce in 3 acts. Collected from old memories by Gyuszi Bodnár. Music whistled by Mr Kodály. The Laczkó freshman adds a prologue.” February 16, 1904, 48x69 cm, Location: József Eötvös Collegium, TG Hall.

In the exhibition guide published in 2011, Magdolna Tóth writes about cabaret posters: „Cabaret posters are special documents of college student life. The tension of the hard work was relieved by the theatrical performances, the „cabarets”, sometimes interwoven with Rabelaisian humor, which were initially presented by the collegians on Mr. BG's name day at the end of February. The professors of the university were also invited to this occasion, who had often become „victims” of the student pranks, but on this day they were not allowed to take offense.”

Compiled by Attila Boda

Source: Lustrum. The palace of the Eötvös Collegium in Ménesi út is 100 years old. Exhibition manager. Ed. László Horváth. Budapest, 2011, 85–87.

In 2022, the University Library and Archive won 300 000 HUF at the tender of the National Cultural Fund for the purchase of professional archival books.

The funds were used to purchase English-language reference books on archival studies, the professional tasks of university archives and the university's museum collections. The books are available in our archival research room.