Károly Szabó's Union Catalog, "Old Hungarian Library", and the Bibliographic Construction of Greater Hungary

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
As librarian of the Transylvanian Museum Society in Cluj/Kolozsvár for the first thirty years of its existence, Károly Szabó (1824-90) brought together in a pioneer union catalog not only descriptions but holdings for early Hungarian imprints located in multiple repositories. His innovation in library science was inspired by the project to create a Greater Hungary.
Szabó’s job description as librarian placed central emphasis on the cataloging and description of the manuscripts and books entrusted to his care. In assembling the book catalog he determined that an adequate description of the early publications required that he compare them to other copies and unique items in other repositories, and also that Hungarian imprints be defined by place of publication rather than language. Hence the catalog of one library grew into boxes of cards carefully annotated thru visits and correspondence with more than 40 repositories, then eventually into the multivolume work that was completed after his death but was always meant to stimulate additional entries by colleagues around the country.
This paper proposes to investigate the inspiration and significance of Szabó’s "Old Hungarian Library" for librarianship in Hungary and abroad. I am in correspondence with Cluj/Kolozsvár in Romania and hope to consult Szabó’s papers there for the completion of this project.



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