Mission and strategy

Serving as a storehouse of knowledge, National Széchényi Library is an institution storing and making publicly available traditional (paper-based) and modern (electronic) library documents of the Hungarian cultural heritage.

Mission statement:

National Széchényi Library (NSZL) collects, processes and stores treasures of the Hungarian national culture, be they in written, printed, audiovisual or electronic form.
The Library provides direct access to its own collection and, being a coordinator of central catalogues, to the collections of other institutions as well.
Its library service provides users with continuously up-dated content and equipment.
In close cooperation with other institutions, the Library plays a leading and/or coordinating role and also takes part in programs aiming at the description and preservation of recorded cultural and intellectual heritage.
The national library is one of the hubs of source-value basic research and of scientific evaluation work based on this research. At the same time, the Library is a primary source collection for human science research related to Hungary.
In order to carry out its tasks of a national library, NSZL maintains active contacts with Hungarian libraries beyond the country’s border.
Making use of its international relations, the Library aims at increasing the number of Hungary-related bibliographic records, mediates information on Hungarian libraries and on the history of books and also plays an active role in cooperation with The European Library as well as in the creation of the European Digital Library.
Via the activities of Hungarian Library Institute, NSZL helps libraries, the basic institutions of a knowledge-based society, to develop, to adjust their operation and services to real-life needs, to strengthen their position in society and to get help in the field of professional policy.

Our aims:

To make Library collections richer by way of updating regulations on acquisition policy and by way of continuous acquisition, and to preserve Library collections.
By the end of this strategic period, to make available the entire collection of the national library with the help of electronic stock processing tools and devices.
Development of quality services in order to make it possible for researchers, members of the education community and other users to have an easy and safe access to their own collection as well as to content stored in other libraries.
To play an active coordinating role in the development of services coordinated with other institutions within the Hungarian library community.
As a competence center for handling electronic documents, to develop the framework of a national leading role as well as to carry out inner development on the entire Library level.
As a scientific library, the research, scientific processing and classification of cultural property belonging to the scope of collection of NSZL, and the publication of scientific results.
To make the system of Hungarian National Bibliography complete, to perform basic reseach in the field of book and library history.
To develop public relations activities and international relations in order to make it possible for Hungary’s national library to show an open, attractive and cooperative image to its partners.
Organizational and human resources development, state-of-the-art HR policy in order to successfully implement strategic objectives.
To provide information technology and financial background, so that the Library could operate smoothly and that it could broaden and develop its activities.
To work out central services for libraries, library systems and librarians and to carry out strategic development via activities of the Hungarian Library Institute.