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Networks, electronic publishing, virtual library and the realities

The essay analyses the following approaches to digital culture: Utopian, pragmatic and worrying. Nevertheless, all these approaches accept the need for transformation. Bibliology could become in the 21st century a branch of science to deal with these changes. The essay raises the idea of a profession named cultural and social engineers.

Modernization, culture, technology

The five parts of the essay: I. Centre and periphery (North-South). The gap between them is increasing, first of all as a consequence of the rapid economic development of the centre. The main difference lies in the improvement of living conditions and in the investments into the human factor. II. The concept of culture and technological assistance: examples relating to the importance of the human factor in the field of investments in developing countries. III. Cultural heritage and the division of labour: the positive alternative of cultural multifunctionality "under one umbrella". IV. Cultural standard - writing - electronization: historical overview and the absurdity of the "paperless library". V. The visions of Victor Hugo and Leonardo about the unfolding of human potentialities.

For and against the Internet

The essay discusses the linguistic problems of the Net, with special regard to the Hungarian language. It considers the related difficulties to be one of the vulnerable points of the Internet. It comes to the conclusion that research libraries and the Internet should cooperate but their cooperation should in no way be disadvantageous for libraries.

The situation of the Library of the Parliament as an institution

The Library of the Parliament is a specialized research library in the field of law with national responsibilities. It serves its users with dual functions: as a leading research library in Hungary it provides materials and information for researchers, the MPs and the Office of the Parliament relying on its holdings of 800,000 volumes and on its up-to-date computerised information services. The library's main collection interest covers political science and law, contemporary universal history, political sciences, Hungarian and international parliamentary documents, as well as the official publications of the UN. The modernization of the library covered the automation of the work-flow having speeded up in the late 80s as well as the continuous development of political, legal and press databases within the library. The professional and financial support programme of the US Congress in the period 1991 to 1994 played an outstanding role not only in setting up information services for MPs, but also in general institutional development. After closing this programme, owing to strict budgetary restrictions by the mid-90s even the basic preconditions for the library's operation have become endangered.

Transformation of book publishing and book trade in Hungary in the 80s and 90s

Book publishing and book trade have undergone major changes in the 90s. The property relations have been considerably transformed and have naturally resulted in organizational changes as well. The author discusses related research activities: into the characteristic problems of the book profession, into the main critical areas determining the state of the entire profession. It seeks to answer the question what the "chaos, failure" having been frequently formulated really means in this area. It mentions the changes in the state's role, discusses the economic-political and partly cultural-political philosophy behind the changes, and analyses the changes in values in the related organizations, and the resulting organizational strategies.

The impact of political and economic changes on libraries

The author guides us into the everyday life of public libraries with a professional past of some decades. She describes how economic transformation and the rapid changes of the system of financing shocked the library system. She reviews the state of the art regarding the process of acquisitions, the needs of the totally transformed education, the technical processing having slowed down, the changes in the social composition of library users. She stresses the importance of the written text in preserving values and the indispensability of libraries in our changing life.

Research into user satisfaction in the Czech Republic (based on books published in recent years)

The research was aimed at analysing the operation of the book market, the survey of the information sources related to published materials (books). It sought an answer to the questions whether readers are satisfied with the choice of books offered and what their financial opportunities were to purchase books.

Short report on the research "Transformation of written communication in the Central European countries"

Short report on the conference "New technologies and writing" (Rabat, November 1997)