• 2015-04-10

National Central Library (NCL)’s Director General Shu-hsien Tseng and Director General László Tüske from the National Széchényi Library (Hungarian: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, OSZK) signed a Cooperation Agreement on April 10, 2015. Representative Wen-Lung Tao from the Taipei Representative Office, Budapest, Hungary was in attendance to witness this historic moment.

The OSZK has set up a special librarian workshop to promote the digital archives and services. As part of the workshop Director General Tseng was invited to speak and share NCL’s vast experience in similar endeavors. 30-40 staff members, as well as librarians from other Hungarian libraries attended and were impressed with the achievements and modernized methods of Taiwan’s digitization efforts. Many questions regarding digitization were raised, and a great exchange of ideas ensued.

The OSZK was founded in 1802 and located at the Buda Castle Palace in Budapest. The NCL collection exceeds eight million volumes. The Library has a rich collection of early books worth visiting, such as the first book printed and published in Hungary in 1473, more than 8,000 copies of works published before 1711, over 1,800 incunabula dating from the first century of book printing, manuscripts, etc. Also, the OSZK acquired four manuscript pages of Mozart’s “Turkish March” in 2014. In fact, a large repository of music collection and the theatre history collection is one of the library’s most notable characteristics.

Taiwan and Hungary have developed a close interaction for many years. Representative Levente Székely from the Hungarian Trade Office in Taipei donated a set of 50 CDs (Heritage of Our Future XX→ XXI) that represents classic traditional Hungarian folk music collection for a century to the NCL in 2014. And the NCL is the first library in Asia to receive an official donation of this set and the public in Taiwan will be able to access these CDs by visiting the NCL’s Arts and Audiovisual Center. During the donation ceremony, Representative Székely, together with his wife, Madame Hedi Sztano Szekelyne, also demonstrated the rich tradition of Hungarian dance. That impressed all the honorable guests with the Hungarian folk music, as well as Hungary's successful effort to preserve this music.

Accompanied by Representative Szekely, Mr. (Géza) Szőcs, the first adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, led a delegation to the NCL. We touched on several potential cooperative issues for the two parties such as exhibitions, lectures, mutual visits and exchange of librarians.

The NCL has long been an active proponent of cooperative endeavors with other national libraries. Hungary has an amazing cultural and musical heritage. After signing a cooperation agreement, both libraries will begin in earnest to promote the culture and arts of both countries. Exhibitions and exchange of books will increase mutual understanding of both countries’ citizens. In addition, The NCL will use its vast experience and professionalism in digitizing holdings and digital services to assist the OSZK in digitizing their valuable holdings so that they might share them with the world.

During the signing ceremony, Director General Tseng particularly donated replicas of The Annotated Poetry of Su Dongpo, a national treasure of the Republic of China that is more than 800 years old, and The Diamond Sutra which is the earliest wood block print book with dual color in the world. She especially thanked General Director Tüske for his support of this project, as well as the library staffs who have spent so much effort to launch cooperation.

The OSZK presented many precious works to the NCL as a gift, including a Chinese-Hungarian dual language version of The Journey to the West, and explained each book to Director General Tseng. The OSZK also arranged the guide tour of General Library, Restoration Department and Map Department, and both parties enjoyed intense discussion on preservation and restoration of ancient works.