Mission statement

"The library of the Future, the future of the Library"

The Department of Digital Content Development and Services in the National Széchényi Library works on the reinterpretation of the word: "library" as a place of archives and services, in the virtual environment of the Internet. Therefore, we build and maintain collections, develop and run various services, adopt international standards and best practices, permanently make experiments with the utilization of new technologies for library purposes. We place particular emphasis on the problems of electronic publishing, the methods of long time digital preservation, and the digitization of old and rare printed material; also we encourage the evolution of a co-operating network of Hungarian e-libraries by sharing our experience and technique with others.

Beside research and development we operate one of the largest content service on the Hungarian Internet as a free "public library" of monographic or periodical digital documents and digital images (MEK, EPA and DKA) containing educational, scientific and cultural publications. There are several partner institutions, external contributors and volunteers behind the growth of these collections. We develop our library services with special care of the needs of people with disabilities and Hungarians living outside our borders. Another important aspect is to help our readers find relevant information and to pay attention to their remarks and requests. Our collections are open and can be connected with other Hungarian or international systems to be part of a global digital knowledge base in the future.

So the mission of the Department of E-library Services is to give a new meaning and image to the words "library" and "librarian"; to develop new services suitable for the needs of the knowledge-based society in the 3rd millennium.