The Hungarian Electronic Library has been working since the spring of 1994 and it has become quite popular in Hungary during these five years. Its main tasks:

- collecting of electronic documents from the widest possible variety of sources

- making a catalogue of the work and its public registration

- encourage electronic publication

- getting a "public library" working on the internet

 

The Electronic Library, which started as a private initiative, has developed spontaneously in the last few years; hundreds of volunteers have helped to fill the virtual bookshelves. The Hungarian Electronic Library has continued its work within the framework of the National Library since 1st September, 1999.

The main menu of the electronic library from where all the important ramifications are available.

In the virtual reading-room of the Hungarian Electronic Library, the electronic documents can be found in the same way as in other libraries. Each branch divides into further branches.

The fiction bookshelf is the richest: the overwhelming majority of the 3000 electronic documents are the works of classical Hungarian fiction.

As well as texts, music, maps and other illustrated documents can be also found in great numbers in the Electronic Library. In the picture, you can see a map of the 64 counties of the Hungarian Kingdom from the XIX. century.

The reading-room catalogue offers different ways of searching. The data base is also accessable in Debrecen and Szeged, where you can search in the catalogue based on MARC, or in the complete texts of each document.

The latest experiment: due to the three-dimensional VRML technique, we can see before us the virtual building of the Hungarian Library .