• 2015-04-09

Prior to the cooperation agreement signing ceremony with the National Széchényi Library, Director General Tseng visited the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Central Library, which is located in Budapest and which has a hundred and eleven years history. There she met with Dr. Péter Dippold, director of the library, and exchanged experience in the development of librarianship. After the meeting, she toured the Hungarian National Assembly that is located on the east shore of the Danube.

The official name of Budapest City Library is the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library. It was established in 1904 and has 52 branches. Its collection exceeds three million volumes. It is a public library. Besides serving the general public, it also participates in national and international research work. Moreover, it is the national source of sociological literature collection.

The sociologist Ervin Szabó (1877-1918) was the first director of the library. He made an effort to make the services of the institution available for the masses, with special regard to the socially handicapped. Under his management, from 1910 onwards, the Metropolitan Library started to be reorganized as a public library institution.

The Hungarian National Assembly (Hungarian: Országgyűlés) is a magnificent example of Neo-Gothic architecture although displaying Renaissance and Baroque character. It lies in Kossuth Lajos Square, on the bank of the Danube. The parliament of Hungary is Europe’s second largest assembly hall and has been lauded as the most beautiful parliament building in Europe. Not only is it the center of politics, it also has an abundance of famous sculptures and paintings on the scale of a museum.