According to our tradition, this year we joined the Night of Museums series of events, which included craft activities, concerts, guided tours, restoration and calligraphy workshops, as well as an exhibition entitled Buda Chronicle 550.
The programme opened with a concert by the String Quartet from the ELTE University Concert Orchestra in the lobby, featuring works by Mozart, Kreisler, Elgar and Weiner.
Through our building tours, visitors were given an insight into the history of the library and the rooms of the historic building. They were also able to learn about the restoration process, our museum collection, the life and work of Loránd Eötvös and create unique hardcover books. During our event, the Festival Academy Budapest Ensemble gave a concert in the lobby, introducing our guests to the mysteries of music literature.
This year's event also included the presentation of the Buda Chronicle. The Chronica Hungarorum by András Hess is the most famous publication of the first printing house in Hungary, and the original version preserved in our library is also renowned for the fact that the edition never left the territory of historic Hungary.
The chamber exhibition of historical works related to the Buda Chronicle is open until the 8th of September 2023, from 10.00 to 15.00 on weekdays. Registration is possible at titkarsag@lib.elte.hu. All visitors are welcome!
Object of the month – Gothard’s transit instruments
A transit instrument (Fig. 1) was used to observe the transit of stars over the meridian. The accurate determination of this event provided declination and right ascension in case of an unknown star, while for a star of already known coordinates it provided stellar time. Two kinds of transit instruments were used. To measure the position of a star a meridian circle was used, while a transit tube made it possible to determine time exactly.
A meridian circle is made up of a telescope fixed perpendicularly to the horizontal axis of rotation going east-west, and „wheels” with degree scales at the ends of the axis. The telescope moved along only one axis, in the plane of the meridian of the observation point. The zero of the scale was denoted by the plane of the celestial equator, that is the projection of the Equator of the Earth. For stars north of this celestial equator a positive declination was measured when transiting the cross hair, while for stars in the south had negative declination at transit, the degree measure of which was read off from the circular scale at the end of the axis.
To determine right ascension an accurate clock measuring stellar time was needed as the right ascension of a transiting star is identical to stellar time. Exact determination of the moment of meridian transit was helped by practically constructed cross hairs in the eyepiece. The structure of the transit tube that determines stellar time is similar to the meridian circle, but smaller circles were applied on the axis ends as the scale was used to set the coordinates of stars and not for measurement. Observation in this case meant exact recording of the meridian transit of stars with known coordinates. This purpose was achieved by using a chronograph in the previous section, with the help of which Gothard carried out chronometric measurements to one tenth of a second.
„As the instrument to be set up in the meridian would be too difficult or even impossible to place in the main building, due to its location, in the summer of 1882 I built a smaller building on the meridian under a right angle and on its east end a small tower with a diameter of 3 m and with a revolving, conic tower for an equatorial to be purchased later. That is the building where the transit tube is placed, which I could just as well name meridian because it is supplied with an extremely finely scaled Reichenbach-circle.” – Gothard wrote in his paper submitted to department III of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1883. (Gothard Jenő: Spektrálfotografiai tanulmányok. Értekezések a Természettudományok Köréből, XXI. kötet, 2. szám, 1891.)
The instrument (Fig. 3) set up in the Herény transit house (Fig. 2) was produced in the Ógyalla workshop by Miklós Konkoly Thege in 1879. The simple instrument made up of theodolite parts, shown in figure 4.32 was bought by Gothard in 1882, but a few years later he entered the European "market of instruments" with his universal transit instrument produced by himself. The new universal observation device (Fig. 4) was sent to the observatory of Bothkamp in 1888. The masterpiece produced in the Herény workshop provided exact stellar time for setting the largest refractor of the epoch (diameter of the objective: 29.3 cm, focal length of the objective: 4.9 m) in the first astrophysical observatory of contemporary Germany.
The transit instrument in Bothkamp brought a new order to Gothard. In September 1891, on the order of Konkoly, he designed a transit instrument for the Central Meteorological Institute in Budapest. At this time appeared the new person showing an interest in the passage instrument:
„My deeply respected friend, In Munich you asked me whether I would be willing to make a transit instrument for you, similar to the one you saw in Bothkamp. So please do not resent my bid to make such an instrument. The Central Meteorological Institute of Budapest has ordered such an instrument from me and I believe I could sell them 10% cheaper if two were produced at the same time.” – Gothard wrote in his letter on the 29th of September 1891 to Maximilian Wolf, director of the Heidelberg Observatory. (Letter from Jenő Gothard, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Hs 3695)
As a result of the meeting in Munich, a beautiful observation instrument came to life and we can follow its realization from the moment of its conception to its birth in the letters documenting the consultations of two European scientists between the 29th of September 1891 and the 18th of October 1892. We can follow the details of how the transit instrument of Heidelberg (Fig. 5) was born in 25 letters, on 78 pages. In Jenő Gothard and Max Wolf’s discussion, apart from working out modern technical solutions necessary for the scientific task, accurate determination of time and localization, there are also a lot of references to the contemporary industrial background, which was indispensable for constructing the perfect instrument.
Written by József Kovács, PhD
Fig. 1: The transit instrument bought from Miklós Konkoly Thege (Gothard Memorial Exhibition) Fig. 2: The transit house in the garden of Gothard's castle built in 1882 (Drawing made in 1882, Gothard Archive, ELTE GAO) Fig. 3: The transit instrument bought from Konkoly in the transit house (Image taken in 1883, Gothard Archive, ELTE GAO) Fig. 4: The Bothkamp transit instrument (Image taken in 1888, Gothard Archive, ELTE GAO) Fig. 5: The Heidelberg transit instrument in the transit house in Heidelberg (Image taken in 1892, Gothard Archive, ELTE GAO) Fig. 6: Gothard's own transit instrument (Image taken in 1892, Gothard Archive, ELTE GAO)
On the 19th and 20 June 2023, the staff of the ELTE University Library Service (ULS) participated in a workshop on quality development led by Dr. Attila Szoboszlai, trainer.
Taking into account the micro- and macro-environmental conditions and circumstances, user needs, organisational characteristics and national and international trends, which are the main factors determining the strategy, our librarians jointly define the main strategic objectives for the next five years, after a situation analysis. The joint work is planned to continue in the autumn.
Jean-Noël Jeanneney, former director general of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, former minister, historian, producer of France Culture and Jacqueline Plessis, language attaché of the French Institute in Budapest, accompanied by Dr. Vilmos Bárdosi, rector in charge of Francophone relations at ELTE, visited our library.
After a tour featuring the architectural beauties of the library palace, our guests attended a special old book presentation of the University Library's French-related collection.
On the occasion of the Night of Museums, on the 24th of June 2023 from 6.00 pm at the ELTE University Library and Archives in the Lobby (1053 Budapest, Ferenciek tere 6.), a string quartet consisting of members of the ELTE University Concert Orchestra will give a concert with Éva Dúlfalvy, concertmaster (violin), Csaba Nemes (violin), Mónika Mezei (viola) and Zsuzsanna Kéri (cello).
The K21 Green Library Team of the ELTE University Library Service is committed to promoting environmental awareness and the "green approach" among the university citizens.
In order to raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection, the members of the working group have developed a virtual green collection, which allows browsing through books on sustainability and environmental awareness in Hungarian and foreign languages. Clicking on the book titles will take you to the online library catalogue ELTEfind, where you can find out about the availability of the book you are looking for. The keyword links following the recommendation texts point to the ELTEfind results lists and lead to further documents on the subject.
The Foundation for the University Library held this year's meeting of the Board of Trustees, where Dr. Péter Kiszl, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Kulcsár Szabó Ernőné Gombos Annamária, Director General of the ELTE University Library and Archives (ELTE ULA), Dr. László Szögi, retired Director General of ELTE ULA, Krisztián Szalay, Rector's Commissioner for Sports Affairs of ELTE, Márta Csikós, Head of Cabinet of ELTE ULA, and as new members Dr. Edit Madas, academician, professor, and Judit Osskó, certified architect, monument protection engineer, television editor-director, participated in the meeting.
During the meeting, the financial and professional report of the Foundation for 2022 was approved, and members agreed on the strategic orientations of the plans for this year, defining the steps and workflows for implementation.
For more details on the activities of the Foundation for the University Library, book adoptions and donations, please, click here.
The Web of Science Editorial Team will provide an inside view of the journal evaluation process and selection criteria, a robust process that makes the Web of Science Core Collection™ the world’s most trusted publisher-independent global citation database. Join this webinar and learn about the selection criterias in details as well as about the selection process phases.
The selected journals are included in the service provider's database, the so-called Web of Science Core Collection, which enables the service provider's system to calculate an impact factor based on the citations received to the articles published in the journal.
As a team-building programme, the staff of the ELTE EKL Savaria Library and Archives participated in a joint archery event in the framework of the„Move, ELTE! – Workers' Sports Week 2023” programme.
After a short session at the ELTE SEK Centre for Physical Education and Sport, everyone could experience that it is not so easy to draw a bow and to aim an arrow accurately.
István Kívés, the head of the Sports Centre, was a professional instructor with professional equipment to introduce archery as a sport. The team of librarians learned basic archery techniques as a new challenge. The instructor patiently helped them learn proper holding, aiming and shooting techniques.
The team building programme aimed to develop organisation and social relationships, strengthen roles and cooperation within the team and improve performance.
The University Library and Archives, as the host organisation, has concluded a cooperation agreement with the Vasi Student Community Service (VDKSZ), based on the contract between the supporting institutions – the Municipality of Szombathely City with County Rights and Eötvös Loránd University – and implemented in the ELTE EKL Savaria Library and Archives.
The ELTE EKL Savaria Library and Archives has been hosting students from secondary schools in Szombathely for several years. In the last three years, more than 60 students have chosen the library and library work as their community service.
In the framework of the renewed agreement, the VDKSZ also makes available to the parties the details of the community service activities in a web database and provides online advertising opportunities on the VDKSZ website to display the community service activities.
