In the first half of 2023 Elsevier offers free online trainings in English and Hungarian for researchers, university lecturers, MA and PhD students and librarians. The first session will provide useful information on research data management.

Importance of research data management

Research data management plays a crucial role at different levels of research activity today. This webinar will discuss Elsevier's effective solutions to help managing research data.

Time: 14th March 2023; 10:00 (CET)

Language: English

Register to the webinar

The recognition is considered outstanding both within the university and nationwide.

The Repository Certification Committee of the MTMT (Magyar Tudományos Művek Tára = Hungarian Science Bibliography – the database of Hungarian scientific publications) issued certificates to two more scientific online journals affiliated with the ELTE Faculty of Humanities based on the submitted certification requests.

Our newly MTMT Qualified Journals:

• Dissertationes Archaeologicae ex Instituto Archaeologico Universitatis de Rolando Eötvös nominatae
• Névtani Értesítő

Currently, only sixteen academic journals are certified.

The qualification protocol is intended to certify journals’ publishing practices published in online database software, using the Open Access or delayed Open Access publishing model. The process examines the journal's peer review process and the practice of informing potential authors and readers. The purpose of the certification is to support the work of the editorial offices, to promote  the development of a standardised operation of national web journals, which also ensures the automatic uploading of the articles' bibliographic data into MTMT.

The recognition is due to the outstanding and persistent professional work of the editorial board of Dissertationes Archaeologicae ex Instituto Archaeologico Universitatis de Rolando Eötvös nominatae and Névtani Értesítő, to the scientific research of the authors, as well as to the support of the librarians of the ELTE Faculty of Humanities Library and Katalin Jakab, MTMT administrator of the ELTE FoH Institute of Hungarian Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies, and to the University Library and Archives.

Our heartfelt congratulations to the editorial board of the qualified journals and to the authors published in the journals, and we wish them continued success in their academic work.

Sources:

Qualified journals

Repository Certification Committee

MTMT classification of scientific online journals

Object of the month – Szondi test

Lipót Szondi (Nyitra, March 11, 1893 – Küsnacht, Switzerland, January 27, 1986) was an internationally famous neurologist, psychiatrist, creator of fate analysis and the Szondi instinct diagnostic test. He spent his early years with Pál Ranschburg in the psychological laboratory of the Appony Polyclinic, and from 1927 in the Medical Pedagogy, Clinical and Medical Laboratory of the Special Education Training College. In 1941, he lost his job as a result of the Jewish Law. In December 1944, he and his family received asylum in Switzerland. He settled permanently in Zurich, where he formed the Szondi circle. He practiced psychiatry and psychology and further developed the scientific theoretical and practical research that he had begun in Hungary.

He created his test during his work in Hungary. Alongside Ranschburg, he participated in endocrinological, morphological and genetic research. Afterwards, he was given an independent research position at the Special Education, Pathology and Medicine Laboratory, which operated within the legal predecessor institution of ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education, and his research there led to the creation of the test.

The Szondi test is also known by several other names: Szondi gene test, Szondi instinct diagnostic test. It is one of the most well-known projective tests (to examine the dynamics of the whole personality) worldwide.

Szondi traces back almost all normal and pathological phenomena of human life to instincts. In his research, the data of 1,000 families and 15,000 family members (detailed medical, biological, psychological examinations and characteristics of the family's social and mental environment) were recorded. In order to reveal the hereditary background, a family tree was created for each case to map the characteristics and frequency of the diseases. Szondi came to the conclusion that our fateful choices are only seemingly conscious, the actual background of our choices is provided by the family unconscious. Szondi was looking for a method to examine what appears at the level of the individual from the "inheritance" provided by the family background. The test was created to examine this.

An early copy of the test, and a manuscript entitled Methodology and Instinct, presenting its administration manual and theoretical foundations can be found in the ELTE Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Needs Education Library and Historical Collection of Special Needs Education.

Sources: 

• Gordosné Szabó Anna: Szondi Lipót. In: Báthory Zoltán, Falus Iván (főszerk.): Pedagógiai Lexikon, III. kötet, Budapest, Keraban Kiadó, 1997. 
• Gordosné Szabó Anna: Szondi-teszt. In: Báthory Zoltán, Falus Iván (főszerk.): Pedagógiai Lexikon, III. kötet, Budapest, Keraban Kiadó, 1997. 
• Szondi Lipót. In: Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon https://www.arcanum.com/en/online-kiadvanyok/Lexikonok-magyar-eletrajzi-lexikon-7428D/sz-77C95/szondi-lipot-7806C/ (Downloaded: 2023. 03. 06.)
• Kiss Enikő Csilla: A kísérleti ösztöndiagnosztikai teszt, a Szondi-teszt. In: Császár-Nagy Noémi, Demetrovics Zsolt, Vargha András (szerk.): A klinikai pszichológia horizontja. Tisztelgő kötet Bagdy Emőke 70. születésnapjára. Budapest, L’Harmattan Kiadó, 2012, 248–261.

Written by Bergmann Krisztina

The latest volume of Júlia Varga, archivist of the ELTE University Library and Archives, was presented on the 2nd of March 2023.

The volume, entitled Students of higher education institutions in Buda and Pest 1713–1784, reveals archival data ont he 18th-century students of the Jesuit Academy in Buda, the Piarist Lyceum in Pest and the Law School in Pest. The volume was presented by Dániel Siptár, director of the Archives of the Hungarian Order of the Society of Jesus and András Koltai, director of the Central Archives of the Hungarian Province of the Piarist Order.

Yale University provided 60 day institution-wide trial of two databases, eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology. The trial period ends on 24 April 2023.

The membership-based eHRAF World Cultures database contains information on present and past aspects of cultural and social life for a worldwide sample of societies. The contents are organized by cultures and indexed at the paragraph level by HRAF anthropologists with unique subject identifier codes from the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM), making it ideal for both exploratory, in-depth cultural research, and cross-cultural comparisons.

The eHRAF Archaeology is an award-winning online database with information on the prehistory of the world. This database, modelled after eHRAF World Cultures, is unique in that the information is organized into archaeological traditions and the text is subject-indexed to the paragraph-level by HRAF anthropologists according to HRAF’s modified Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM). This comprehensive subject retrieval system extends search capability well beyond keyword searching allowing for precise subject retrieval, even in foreign language texts. Tutorial is available here.

Gábor Hevenesi (1656–1715) was a Jesuit theologian and historian, and the provincial of the Hungarian Jesuit Province. First he taught in Trnava, then in Vienna and Graz. He was the counsellor of Leopold Kollonich, archbishop of Esztergom. At the archbishop's request Hevenesi launched the collection of historical documents pertaining to Hungary. The material gathered during this enterprise fills 91 manuscript volumes preserved today in the University Library and Archives.

Hevenesi was a prolific author: he published more than 30 books. One of his most important works, Régi magyar szentség, published in Vienna in 1692, was written on the inspiration of the Bollandists’ great enterprise, the Acta sanctorum, and it contains the short vitae of saints and blessed related to Hungary. His book titled Amores Josephini was published in the same year and city in Leopold Voigt’s University Press that published a great number of Hungarian documents. Although the strengthening of the cult of St. Joseph in the West had started already in the high Middle Ages, the real heyday of the production of writings and meditative treatises on him took place in the 16th and 17th centuries. Emperor Leopold (r. 1657–1705) offered the Habsburg realms to the patronage of St. Joseph and named his son after him. According to Hevenesi, who relied on earlier literary tradition, the saint was born without pain by his mother and took a vow of chastity as a mature man. Joseph is represented in this work as the head of the Holy Family and a caring father, who lays his son to sleep and feeds the baby Jesus, later teaches him to read and write, as well as carpentry. After his death, Joseph could occupy his place next to his spouse before Christ. The work containing 53 copperplate engravings ends with chapters on the spreader and promoter of the cult of St Joseph, St Theresa of Avila, and about the fact that he is the patron saint not only of the Jesuits but of people from the most diverse backgrounds.

The book is part of the book adoption program of the Foundation for the University Library. Save a book, adopt a book!

For more information visit our website: https://konyvtar.elte.hu/en/support-us/adopt-a-book

As part of our service expansion, self-service scanning became available in our library from the 1st of March 2023. Readers can digitalize documents in a self-service manner, due to the special book scanners.

Using the scanners, up to 30 pages per minute can be scanned without the need to stretch the books on a glass plate, thus saving the spine. The software automatically straightens the pages after laser scanning. The device enables digitisation of documents up to A3 size and has a character recognition function so that scanned content can be saved not only as images but also as editable text.

There are currently two scanners available to our visitors for a time-based fee in the Reading Hall of the University Library:

• university students, lecturers, researchers: 200 HUF/ 30 minutes
• other visitors: 300 HUF / 30 minutes

After several years of preparation, self-service borrowing and return based on radio frequency identification became available in our library.

In the past two years, more than 200 000 documents have been RFID tagged, allowing books to be borrowed in seconds without the help of a librarian at the dedicated terminals. After identification with a library card, you can simply place all the documents you want to borrow in the designated area of the terminal. After automatic recognition, the system validates the loan and sends an e-mail or prints a paper receipt.

Two terminals have been installed in our building, one in the lobby and one at the circulation desk. Besides the lending service, these self-service terminals allow you to check out live loans and extend deadlines. The device in the lobby also offers the possibility of returning books beyond the opening hours of the library, during the time period when the building is open.

The installation of the devices is part of a four-year university-wide development, which started in 2021. Coordinated by the University Library and Archives, the new service will be continuously available in the member libraries of the University Library Service (faculty, dormitory libraries). The innovative technology supports not only lending but also library background work, including automatic inventories.

We wish all visitors to enjoy using the new devices.

The ELTE University Library and Archives will be open from the 27th of February 2023 with full opening hours.

Our full range of services are available between 9.00 and 20.00 on weekdays, and on Saturdays between 10.00 and 18.00 the Information Desk is open, as well as the Reading Hall for study and reading on site.

As part of our constantly expanding services, the lobby is accessible two hours before and after opening hours with a valid library card to use the self-services provided. The following services are available from 7.00 to 9.00 and from 20.00 to 22.00 on weekdays, as well as from 8.00 to 10.00 and from 18.00 to 20.00 on Saturdays:

• return of books using a self-checkout terminal and our Bibliobox,
• printing and photocopying with a pre-purchased card,
• coffee and snack machines, comfortable armchairs for consumption.

Please note that during these extra time periods, the Information Desk is not open, so it is not possible to register, purchase printer and photocopier cards or use the toilets due to the closure of the 1st floor.

Everyone is welcome and we wish our students a successful spring semester!

The records of students who obtained a doctorate at the university are now available from 1894. At the time, the University of Budapest still had four faculties (Humanities, Law and Political Science, Theology and Medicine), and doctoral degrees were awarded in all faculties.

In 1949, the Faculty of Natural Sciences was formed from the Faculty of Humanities, so from then on it was also possible to obtain a doctorate there. The doctoral records in the archive contain a total of 40239 names: the names of all students who obtained a doctoral degree at our university between 1894 and 1950. In the index, the doctor’s name, date of birth (if it can be found in the register), their field of study, and the academic year in which they obtained their degree are included with the archival reference of the relevant document. 

The index is avalaible in our repository.