Interesting documents, surprising acquisitions – chamber exhibition

2016/12/09 - 2017/01/30

In the past two years, over 180,000 documents arrived from overseas in Hungary via the so-called Mikes Kelemen Program. There are a lot of unexpected treasures and interesting items among the returning documents.

It was almost exactly two years ago that the first shipment of books donated by the Hungarian diaspora living overseas arrived in the framework of Mikes Kelemen Program organized by the State Secretariat for Hungarian Communities Abroad of the Prime Minister’s Office. Since then, a total of 180,000 documents, equaling the size of a county library, have arrived in Hungary from North America and Australia. Donations were meant to reach the Hungarian communities living primarily beyond the borders of Hungary.

Mikes Kelemen Program offers a unique opportunity for National Széchényi Library, since certain gaps in library stock can hopefully be filled in by hungarica materials published abroad. Our hopes were fulfilled and even exceeded when quite a few unexpected treasures and interesting documents were found among the arriving materials. A selection of these rare and interesting items is exhibited for those who are interested in the acquisition development of the Hungarian national library. The exhibition was opened at 11 a.m. on Friday December 9, 2016 in the Catalog Space of NSZL, on Floor 7.

Venue: National Széchényi Library, Catalog Space on Floor 7

Date: December 6, 2016 – January 30, 2007. The exhibition will be open during the opening hours of NSZL, Tuesday to Saturday, between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Visitors who do not own a Reader Pass to the Library are charged HUF 400. When planning your visit, please, bear in mind that the Ticket Office is closed at 7 p.m.