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Zsuzsanna Tószegi (Hungary): Hungarian libraries on the Internet John von Neumann Digital Library, Budapest, Hungary E-mail: tzs@neumann-haz.hu In Hungary, library automation emerged in the mid-seventies, when some of the largest libraries began to employ computers for cataloguing purposes. First, bibliographical records were processed by computer. Since 1976, records of the Hungarian National Bibliography are being produced by the national library. From the same year on, the library of József Attila University in Szeged applied computers to processing information. In the last twenty years technological shifts were frequent and necessary. Early offline processing was followed by online search first and later by online data input. Integrated library systems were next in automation, many of them may be accessed through the World Wide Web. By the end of the eighties online search could have been done in a number of library databases - among those in the Central Catalogue of Foreign Periodicals. Today, a decade later, 120 Hungarian libraries are present on the Internet. Online search can be done in 54 libraries; 34 of them provide extended services and 66 maintain a homepage for the users' information. These libraries may be categorized by type: 50 of them operates in the higher education system, 13 - in counties, 33 - in cities and 21 is consedered as a special library, including the National Széchényi Library. Public collections as content providers In 1994 a private initiative has resulted in establishing the most significant, Internet based content providing source among public collections. It is called the Hungarian Electronic Library and maintained on the central server of the academical commmunity. The Electronic Library have grown in the past five years to be a heavily-used, popular facility. The Library's collection is being built almost entirely by private sources. Private persons are willing to scan and record literary works for free; authors are willing to submit electronical manuscripts - waiving ccopyright fee; even publishers are willing to suply electronical texts on a frequent basis. Today, some 2500 documents may be accessed in the Electronic Library, all grouped by subdivisions such as: poems, anthologies, novels, studies, articles, etc. Texts are being preserved in ASCII textfiles, oftentimes in condensed format. The Electronic Library aims to collect the following items in entirety: Hungarian online periodicals, data of various Hungarian electronic libraries and text stores. The Hungarian Electronic Library therefore is considered to be an excellent starting-point for further navigation. The Library gained considerable popularity in the past five years: approximately 15.000 visitors counted per month, hooking up from every side of the globe. At the very beginning of the Web era, the Central Library of József Attila University in Szeged had appeared amongst the content providers. In Hungarian librarianship this library is considered in every aspect as one of the most outstanding facilities. The full text of the Calvinist Bible, studies on library and information science and works of late István Baka are preserved on this server for generations to come. (István Baka was a contemporary author, died at a young age.) The server of Janus Pannonius University in Pécs (a city famous for its museums) provides access to a number of interesting and lovely sites on the city's culture and museums. A virtual trip can be done in the Csontváry and Vasarely museums - just to name two of the most famous ones. The server of the University deals with a very special task too. As a unique enterprise, László Bertók, a contemporary author's life-work is being built and preserved in Internet format. The national library joined the group of content providers in 1997 with publishing the current items of Hungarian National Bibliography Bibliography of Books. Content of the biweekly periodical can be searched through the Web, subscribers may download the records in HUNMARC format. The Internet based periodical of the International Bibliological Society's Hungarian division titled "Writing: yesterday and tomorrow" may be accessed via the national library's server as well. The cultural administration's telematical development project Since 1998 a strategical development project exists in Hungary that aims to improve information infrastructure in public collections and cultural institutions. The project has been established by the Cultural Heritage Division of the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage. Public collections may obtain portions of the ever-increasing funding on application to the Ministry. In the first year projects of great importance have been promoted, primarily in libraries providing central services. Among museums and archives nationwide projects have received most support and extra financial aid was given in order to hook county museums and archives up to the Internet. In 1998, during the first year of the project, some 316 million Hungarian forints (1.43 million US dollars) was given to the applicants as a non-refundable aid. In the course of the next two years a considerable amount of money is going to be allocated in part to continue ongoing programs and in part to improve information infrastructure in public collections. In two years, there will be no city library, museum or archive existing without Internet connection thanks in large part to the telematical development project of the cultural administration. At the same time, efforts are going to be made to connect even the smallest libraries to the Internet. The Neumann-house The Neumann-house was founded by the cultural administration within the framework of the aforementioned telematical development project and in accordance with the Law on Culture of 1997. Its top priority is to play an active role in digitalization of Hungarian cultural heritage and co-ordination of various digitalization projects carried out by the public collections. Furhtermore, the Neumann-house is responsible for establishong online services that are built on digitalizationn of the cultural heritage. The new institution began to operate at the end of 1997. First, we had to be acquinted with worldwide digital library projects. Then, we prepared stidues on tasks to be accomplished in the digital library and standards to be aplied. According to international trends, documents will be kept in a stucture that meetsd SGML standards. An SGML DTD was accomplished last year that is open to XML technology and concerning bibliographic data fills requirements of the MARC standard. This SGML technology will be applied in a project called Digital Academy of Literature. The project have been initiated by the cultural administration and targets the accessibility of 39 contemporary writers' and poets' entire life-work. The list of participants widens each year with newly enrolled members of the academy. In 1998 the Neumann-house began planned and ongoing publication of classical Hungarian literature. Up to the present, several institutions have already contributed to uploading of the remarkably rich material. We keep on hoping that others will join us therefore co-ordinating role of the Neumann-house becomes essential. However, Internet accessibility should not be limited to literature only. It is just as important in case of past and present scholarly works. The latter is represented in different ways in the Neumann-house: we have a compilation of studies on history of science, and the net version of a periodical titled : "Educatio" is very popular as well. The net application of complete poems by Endre Ady (a great Hungarian poet lived at the beginning of the 20th century) serves as a model for further volumes present-to-be on our server. Using the virtual volume, it is not only possible to turn pages, but we may navigate in the contents (displayed on the left side of the screen) or search for titles or words appearing in the texts. Another important project targets cataloguing of Hungarian Internet resources. Bibliographic records (built on MARC standard) are processed analyticly; meaning that each and every work of art having an independent URL completes an independent record in the database - should this be a study, a poem, an article, a picture, etc. OLIB's WebView modul allows us to link the given document to the record as an attachment. The whole document can be seen on the screen by simply clicking on the title. We are delighted to say that the range of content providers widens. More and more public collections are present on the Web as content provider. Unfortunately we are not able to give a full overview because such completeness may not be achieved in this rapidly changing era. By the time this paper is presented, the circle of providers will be growing. However, you may find up-to-date information using the Web. Either you check the HUNOPAC list that gives names and URLs for online accessible libraries, or search the public database of the Neumann-house titled "Hungarian public collections with Internet access".