Learning: Library Tour

Director Czeglédi holding a restored book dated 1637.


Lászlo Czeglédi took time out from his busy schedule as library director to give us a tour of the impressive library facilities of Eszterházy Károly. The libraries are housed on two floors of the Lyceum and include the collections of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, and literature. There is a large collection of periodicals, including many in English, and the library has extensive access to periodical articles online through databases such as Ebsco.

The professional staff of eighteen manages the collection which ranges from special collections, with some very old and restored books and materials, to modern media like like DVDs and CDs. The media room had been very recently upgraded with new work stations for multimedia production.

In contrast, the area where Hungarian literature local history resided included cases with materials dating back several hundred years. The reading rooms are spacious and well-lit, some with beautiful two level stacks, with fine wooden shelves, and stairs curving to the upper level. In one of these rooms, the upper levels include the Churchill Collection, and an impressive collection of American Literature. In fact, I almost immediately found a book I've been wanting to read, and couldn't find in bookstores in the U.S. before I left!

Although not technically a part of the libraries, the American Corner is also housed in the library area, and accessed through the library on the ground floor. There are interesting collections there, as well, but seeing the American Literature collection was like discovering treasure. Can't wait to get my library card...

As we toured with Lászlo, I couldn't help thinking of "my" library; that is, Odum Library at VSU. Although the physical scale of Odum Library is much larger, there seemed to be a lot of similarities. Well, except for the ratio of foreign titles! I think the librarians at our library would be very excited to visit in Eger, as would the faculty of the School of Library and Information Sciences. I'll have to see about promoting a study tour, and I'll volunteer to be the travel guide so I can get back to Eger!