The ELTE Savaria University Centre honoured the memory of Gábor Devecseri (1917–1971) with a commemoration ceremony on the occasion of the Hungarian Poetry Day and presented the first volume of the latest publication series of the Department of Literature, Petőfi and Madách 200.

The ceremony, held in the Savaria Library and Archives, was opened by Ibolya Czetter, Professor of Literature and Head of the Department of Literature, who in her introductory remarks drew attention to the literary man's ties to Szombathely and his valuable legacy at the University. He recalled that Gábor Devecseri and his wife Klára Huszár spent their summers in Szombathely in the 1960s and early 1970s as creative artists of the Iseum Games.

Part of his library, which contains almost 4000 volumes, was transferred to the predecessor institution of ELTE ULA Savaria Library and Archives in 1982.

The intellectual heritage was followed by the recent gift of a table and four chairs, a gift from the poet's son János Devecseri, which evoke the atmosphere of the author's home. "Objects have a soul," said Ibolya Czetter, referring to the many people who have sat at this table – from Zoltán Kodály to Ferenc Karinthy, István Örkény and Iván Boldizsár to Tibor Déry – and the many translations that have been made in the company of these objects.

Students gave a taste of the poetry of the literary translator: Máté Goda recited the poem "Letter", Evelin Ádám recited "To Poets", and then Balázs Barták, assistant professor, shared his thoughts with the audience based on his own experiences of Devecseri.

The Gábor Devecseri Library as a special collection is located in the Council Chamber, while the memorial corner is next to the Ágoston Pável Room on the second floor of the library.

In the second part of the event, the moderator of the ceremony, Viktória Málics, talked to Ibolya Czetter and András Szemerics, authors of the book published by the department.

The book contains essays by teachers and students, which were presented at a symposium and other events organised by the Department in 2023 on the occasion of the Petőfi and Madách Bicentenaries at the ELTE Savaria University Centre.

At the commemorative event, teachers and students of the Department of Music Education performed poems set to music.

During the spring break the opening hours of the ELTE EKL Savaria Library and Archives will be changed.

Temporary opening hours:

16 April 2025 (Wednesday) 8.00–13.00

17 April 2025 (Thursday) 8.00–13.00

18–21 April 2024 (Easter holidays) – Closed

22 April 2024 (Tuesday) 8.00–13.00

From 23 April 2025, we will be back to our normal opening hours with our full range of services.

We wish all our readers a happy Easter!

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025. Among its members are many distinguished students and teachers who have left their mark not only on the Academy but also on the history of our institution. Sándor Szilágyi (1827–1899) historian, library director, editor was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1873.

Sándor Szilágyi studied in Kolozsvár, then moved to Pest during the 1848 Revolution, where he worked as a journalist. He worked for several periodicals and even experimented with publishing his own newspaper. From 1852, he taught mathematics at the Reformed College in Kecskemét, where he was a colleague of the poet János Arany, among others. From 1867 he was employed as secretary in the Ministry of Religion and Education, and in 1878 he was appointed director of the University Library. As a historian, he was mainly concerned with the history of Transylvania in the 16th and 17th centuries, edited the journal Századok and started the Historical Archive (Történeti Tár) and Hungarian Historical Biographies (Magyar Történelmi Életrajzok) series. He was also involved in the editing of the Transylvanian Parliamentary Memoirs and the ten-volume History of the Hungarian Nation, published on the occasion of the Millennium. During his two decades as director of our library, he has taken great care to organise the manuscript collection and publish its catalogues, and to develop new types of card catalogues and storage arrangements. His legacy can be found in our library’s manuscript collection.

At the first quarterly report of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee 2025, the leaders of the working groups reported on the results of the past quarter, ongoing work and changes.

The University Library Service (ULS) Quality Improvement Report and the Non-Compliant Services Report from the Quality Coordination Working Group were completed and approved. The 2025 Student Needs and Satisfaction Survey questionnaire on library services has been shortened by the Primary Research Working Group at the request of the Quality Office. The questionnaire was approved by the Library Leadership Working Group. The ELTE-wide staff survey was conducted in late 2024. The evaluation of the survey results has started. The survey on the use of electronic content is ongoing. The questionnaires, in Hungarian and English, aim to assess the web browsing habits of students, faculty and researchers, as well as to identify satisfaction and usage, expectations and needs related to the electronic content currently available at the University. An additional block of questions has been added to the faculty questionnaire on Open Access publishing practices. The 2024 and this year's first quarterly reports of the Process Management Working Group have been finalised. Member libraries are invited to submit comments and suggestions on modifying, extending or deleting processes.

The Communication Working Group provided information on the tasks and achievements of the working groups through the website, the newsletter and the short film 3 months – 3 minutes on the mailing list, and contributed to the success of the preparation and administration of the K21 reporting days meetings. The new version of the ULS Quality Management Handbook was made available on the ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT) and announced on the website and in the newsletter. The Green Library Working Group is finalising the questionnaire for the environmental awareness survey. Members of the Library Leadership Working Group have completed the member libraries' 2024 reports, dissemination reports, this year's work plans and enrollment plans. They approved the reports and work plans of the member libraries and the ULS for this year, as well as the revised Quality Management Manual and the Quality Improvement Report. Six meetings were held in the first quarter, including discussions on changes to the Ministry's statistics, the ELTE Thesis Repository and the installation of the ELTE Browser program for the hosting and delivery of theses, the modification of the 2024 student needs and satisfaction survey questionnaire, the planned electronic content usage questionnaire for this year, the new journal and book procurement calls, and the IKR–SAP data transfer.

An update on the achievements of the K21 Quality Coordination Committee and our new developments will be posted on our website soon.

Henrik Marczali (1856–1940) was a historian, university professor and corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He started his studies at the University of Pest in 1870, and after graduating he became a teacher at the university’s Training School and from 1895 he was appointed a full professor at the university. 

Henrik Marczali played an important role in the establishment of professional historiography and the training of historians in Hungary. His life and work were commemorated last year by the Henrik Marczali Research Group at a two-day conference. The papers of which are now available in print in the 2024 issue 2 of the university history journal Per Aspera ad Astra. The volume also includes an essay by Krisztina Tóth, head of the archives, on Henrik Marczali’s university years. The study is available at https://journals.lib.pte.hu/index.php/paaa/index.

Sage Publishing provides trial access to the Sage Journals and Sage Research Methods databases until May 31, 2025. The databases can be accessed by connecting to the ELTE internet network, and outside the university using a VPN service.

Links to the databases:

https://journals.sagepub.com/

https://methods.sagepub.com/

Sage Journals

The database contains issues from 1999 onwards of more than 1,100 journals from one of the world's largest scientific publishers. The publications cover all scientific fields - natural science journals stand out among them.

Sage Research Methods

The research methodology service provides access to handbooks, journals, video aids and many other resources - supporting workflows at all levels of research. The full text of the Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series is available in the database.

SAGE Research Methods CORE bespoke training webinar

To support trial access, the publisher also organizes webinars to help users use the databases. You can register for the online webinar below for free.

Date: April 23, 2025 14:00-14:45 CEST

Presenter: Claudia Paicu, Library Training & Engagement Specialist Sage UK

Registration

The journal ratings for SCImago Journal & Country Rank 2024 have been published. The goal of SJR is to show, based on Elsevier's SCOPUS database, which quarter a journal falls into in the ranking of a given field, and based on this, journals are classified as Q1, Q2, Q3 or Q4.

Scopus currently indexes five journals affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities at ELTE, whose Q values ​​for 2024 are as follows:

• Dissertationes Archaeologicae: Q1
• Lejana: Q2
• Névtani Értesítő: Q4
• RussianStudiesHu: Q3
• Távol-keleti Tanulmányok: Q4

We heartily congratulate the journal editorial teams and wish them continued success in their work.

From April 15 to May 14, 2025, the provider opens trial access to the Statista Campus License Business Suite database. Access is possible by connecting to the ELTE internet network on campus or using a VPN for remote access. The Service can be found at http://www.statista.com .

Statista is a global data and business intelligence platform that contains an extensive collection of statistics, reports and insights on more than 80,000 topics, from 22,500 sources, in 170 industries. Founded in Germany in 2007, Statista operates in 8 locations worldwide and employs approximately 1,100 professionals.

The ELTE–NFI University Film Club continues the series of screenings and discussions. We welcome university citizens from all faculties of ELTE.

Today, we remember Ignác Semmelweis as a legend, a man of courage and steadfastness, a man of both knowledge and justice. He is not known as the saviour of mothers for nothing. But in his own time he was seen in a very different light. The other Hungarian doctors he worked with in the obstetrics clinic in Vienna thought he was mad: he was not interested in the pleasures of the imperial city, he was just doing his job. The Austrian doctors thought him unbearably violent: he had only one goal in mind, the health of the mothers entrusted to him; and for the sake of this sacred cause he broke every rule and every barrier.

And for his boss, the head of the clinic, he was the living, unpleasant conscience: for if Doctor Semmelweis's theory was true, and the obstetricians were spreading the disease that had killed so many women, they were all murderers.

He had a midwife working alongside him, who saw in him what no one else did: a man who wanted love and reassurance. The film focuses on the year 1847, when a mysterious epidemic decimates the women giving birth in a clinic in Vienna. Doctor Ignác Semmelweis, defying all conventional theories, tries to conquer puerperal fever.

Date: 9 April 2025, 18.00

Venue: University Square campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3. fszt., corridor next to the cloakroom)

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgcc2bhj2o

Starring Miklós H. Vecsei, Katica Nagy, László Gálffi.

Guests of the post-screening discussion will be Lajos Koltai, Hungarian cinematographer and director, winner of the Kossuth and Béla Balázs awards, Balázs Maruszki, screenwriter of the film, Benedek Varga, director of the Semmelweis Medical History Museum, Library and Repository of the MNM. The institution also provided the location for several scenes of the film. Also Prof. Dr. Nándor Ács, obstetrician-gynecologist, director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology II at Semmelweis University.

Due to the limited number of seats, pre-registration is possible at the following link:

https://ajk.elte.hu/content/semmelweis-koltai-lajos-filmje-2023.e.1849

Correspondence about the film club is welcome via eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

The ELTE–NFI Filmklub on Facebook