At the second quarterly report of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee 2024, the leaders of the working groups reported on the results of the past quarter, ongoing work and changes.

The University Library Service (ULS) Quality Improvement Report and the Non-Compliant Services Report were completed and approved. The Accessible Library Working Group has reviewed and modified the Guide to Facilities and Rules for Serving Readers with Disabilities in ULS Libraries. The document has been uploaded to EDIT and is now available to all ULS librarians. 

The Primary Research Working Group has started to evaluate the data of the 2024 Student Needs and Satisfaction Survey provided by the ELTE Quality Office and is continuously revising the text on surveys in the Quality Handbook. The Process Management Working Group has also made suggestions for the Library Process Control chapter of the Quality Handbook and will hold a meeting to discuss the modification of the Process Management and Process Audit forms.

The Communication Working Group provided information on the tasks and achievements of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee through our website, newsletter and short film entitled 3 months – 3 minutes, and contributed to the success of the preparation and administration of the K21 reporting days meetings. The Green Library Working Group has continued a review of the environmental awareness survey.

The library leaders held five meetings in the second quarter to discuss, among other things, the new communication strategy and the ULS-CHANGE newsletter, the current tasks of the EISZ 2025 order, the schedule for uploading theses from the previous academic year to EDIT and related tasks, and the development of the new thesis repository. The leaders reviewed and updated their library assimilation documents and attended a two-day leadership training in mid-May. The ULS Strategy Workshop took place on the 18th and 19th of June 2024, during which the mission statement and vision of the ULS and the tasks related to the strategic objectives were finalised.

An update on the achievements of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee and our new developments will be posted on our website soon.

Oxford University Press welcomes all interested parties to the following English-language webinars. Webinars are free to attend, but needs registration.

Oxford Art Online
July 2, 2024 (Tuesday), 13:00-14:00 CEST
Registration

Oxford Music Online
July 3, 2024 (Wednesday), 11:00-12:00 CEST
Registration

Oxford Medicine Online
July 5, 2024 (Friday), 11:00-12:00 CEST
Registration

Law Migration on Oxford Academic
July 18, 2024 (Thursday), 12:00-13:00 CEST
Registration

Research Journey across OUP’s Resources in the Fields of Politics, and Business and Management
July 23, 2024 (Tuesday), 11:00-12:00 CEST
Registration

Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries Online. What is the difference?
July 24, 2024 (Wednesday), 11:00-12:00 CEST
Registration

The ELTE University Library and Archives hosted a Greek and Turkish delegation from the University of Thessaly and Hacettepe University between the 24th and the 28th of June 2024.

In line with Eötvös Loránd University's strategic goal of internationalisation, our institution is committed to international exchange, sharing of good practices and continuous service improvement in order to increase library users’ satisfaction.

The Greek and Turkish guests, who arrived during the Erasmus+ Programme, participated in the international professional networking programme and were given a guided tour of the library, our Copernicus exhibition and our restoration workshop, as well as a presentation of our library services, the BoYL project, our community spaces, our databases, our EDIT reference room and our service developments.

Members of the Greek delegation also gave a presentation on their library services, their ongoing nationalisation plans and their databases. A round table discussion was also held to exchange views. The institutional partners participating in this series of events are open to further cooperation where possible.

On the 18th and 19th of June 2024, the staff of the ELTE University Library Service (ULS) participated in a workshop on quality development led by Dr. Attila Szoboszlai, trainer.

During the two days, ELTE librarians developed a new vision and mission statement.  The strategic objectives of the ULA for the next three years were defined.

Nowadays, it seems inconceivable that serious scientists of past centuries could have attached so much importance to the current positions of stars and planets.

Diseases, wars, famines or perhaps good harvests, royal weddings and great discoveries await mankind? All this was thought to be read from the signs in the heavens. Join us in our search for the heavens and visit our Copernicus Memorial Exhibition entitled „The man who moved the Earth out of its place”. The exhibition will be open until the 10th of September 2024, on weekdays between 10.00 and 15.00, registration is possible by e-mail at titkarsag@lib.elte.hu.

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 Copernicus Memorial Exhibition. 

The programme opened with a concert by the ELTE „Eötvös” Art Ensemble String Quartet from the ELTE University Concert Orchestra in the lobby, featuring works by Mozart, Telemann, Elgar and Mendelssohn.

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, our guests were able to attend the concert of the soloists of the Sabbathsong Klezmer Band and the world-famous cimbalom player Jenő Lisztes, entitled More than Klezmer on the Night of Museums.

This year’s event also included the presentation of the Copernicus Memorial Exhibition. Visitors were able to take an interesting quiz based on the exhibition, colour bookmarks and use our library puzzles to build our library palace and reassemble fragments of our codex pages.

The Copernicus Memorial Exhibition is open until the 10th of September 2024, from 10.00 to 15.00 on weekdays. Registration is possible at titkarsag@lib.elte.hu.

Iván Nagy, genealogist, historian and former colleague of our library was born 200 years ago, on 18 July 1824 in Balassagyarmat. Between 1855 and 1870 he was a member of the staff of the University Library first as a librarian and then as the first guard from 1859. As a librarian, he was involved in the compilation of the basic catalogue and the reading service, and also engaged in significant scientific activities: he published several sources from the manuscript archives of our library dating from 16th and 17th centuries, and between 1857 and 1868 he published his major work in twelve volumes, Families of Hungary with Coats of Arms and Genealogical Tables.

On the day of the anniversary, the statue of Iván Nagy was worshipped in the Palóc Museum of the Hungarian National Museum, followed by a cerenomy of remembrance and toasts by representatives of institutions connected with Iván Nagy’s life, work and legacy. The event concluded with an interactive genealogy presentation by Nógrád County archivists.

Due to the Night of Museums, the library services of the ELTE University Library and Archives will be inaccessible on Saturday, on the 22th of June 2024. Everyone is welcome to join our programmes starting at 15.00.

More details about our event are available on our website, on the official Night of Museums website and here. All visitors are welcome!

On 12 June 2024 - The Petőfi Literary Museum's exhibition entitled "Halcyon Days - Fashion and Culture in Reform-Age Pest" opened, featuring an engraving depicting George Sand which was loaned from the ELTE University Library and Archives. The exhibition explores the relationship between dress, social life, press and literary publicity in the 1840s. Petra Török, the acting director, welcomed the audience at the opening. The exhibition was inaugurated by Anna Fábri, followed by a costume performance. The exhibition is open until 31 March 2025. 

The National Széchényi Library (NSZL) and Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) have agreed that NSZL will digitize almost 200,000 ELTE paper-based doctoral dissertations and theses by 2027. The documents were signed by Dávid Rózsa, Director General of NSZL, László Borhy, Rector of ELTE, and Ernő Kulcsár Szabó Annamária Gombos, Director General of ELTE University Library and Archives at the Rector's Office of the University.

The aim of the cooperation is to make documents accessible to university citizens in a modern, digital format, thus supporting future AI-based innovations and analyses.

ELTE, Hungary largest university, preserves outstanding intellectual and data assets, including the approximately 186,000 paper-based doctoral dissertations and theses that NSZL submits into digital form after a health check.

This is the largest digitisation agreement in NSZL's history, as a result of which more than ten million pages of documents will be searchable by 2027, Dávid Rózsa said after the signing. According to László Borhy, Eötvös Loránd University has an enormous intellectual product output, and thanks to the agreement, this knowledge will finally become accessible and researchable in a worthy way.

One of the pillars of NSZL's online content service is Central Europe's largest and most significant digitization centre, which enables operational, mass and full-scale digitisation. The capacity of the equipment fleet of the thousand-square-meter center exceeded 13 million exposed pages per year last year. It is extremely important for the national library to put its digitizing capacities at the service of public benefit projects. Through the cooperation, ELTE students and researchers have access to the institution's rich knowledge base in a modern form, thus supporting scientific research and innovative technological developments.

Source: NSZL