Audiovisual documents

Audiovisual documents are relics of the 20th century, providing new possibilities and deserving special attention, which also differ markedly in their handling from written materials. The latter have several hundred years of tradition. Tools and techniques used for book or archival collections are suitable neither for storing nor for handling audiovisual documents.

The Collection of Historical Interviews, taking into account the demands of new data media, considers its main task to create video memoirs, life interviews and portrait films of historical importance. It maintains the MMMA's collection of film hungarica created for educational and research purposes and audio documents of the Hungarian Department of Radio Free Europe, as well as related written material. It continuously processes audiovisual legal deposits provided to National Széchényi Library so, similarly to the national library, it fulfills collection building and bibliographic documentation tasks. On behalf and with the support of the National Radio and Television Corporation (ORTT), the Collection digitizes and even partly processes broadcasts of the five Hungarian national television channels and keeps a copy of the recorded materials of the plenary sessions of the Hungarian Parliament.

Contemporary Collection'56, Radio Free Europe Archive

The radio service created by the National Committee for a Free Europe, founded on May 17, 1949 in New York, broadcasted Hungarian language programs with contribution from the members of the Hungarian Division. By agreement and contract made with Radio Free Europe (RFE), National Széchényi Library has perpetual and non-transferable rights to the archive collection of RFE's Hungarian Division. As the audio and written materials can be found on various data media, the appropriate divisions of the library manage the different individual types of documents. Some of the written material arrived on microfilms; these were put into the Microfilm and Photography Collection. The Manuscript Collection has been collecting the donated legacy of the creators of RFE; while the Collection of Historic Interviews handles audio documents.

Possibly the most interesting pieces of the '56 collection of the Contemporary History Data Archive are audio documents broadcasted by Radio Free Europe in 1956. After the Revolution, Chancellor Adenauer asked for the programs aired by Radio Free Europe to examine if there was any open call for armed resistance. The audio records were subsequently transferred to the Bundesarchive in Koblentz. With the help of colleagues from Prague, 311 long-play cassettes arrived in the Hungarian national library in the autumn of 2001: the RFE programs broadcasted between 22nd of October and the 13th of November in 1956.
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Contemporary Collection from 1963

This collection contains audiovisual documents which are important complementary sources, or in some cases the only sources available, of events from 1963 up until now. For example, the video recordings and transcripts of the discussions of the Opposition Roundtable and the National Roundtable, the program of the foundation to document the year 1992, or non-professional audio and video cassettes recorded by television viewers, which has been placed in the collections of the interview archive. These are in line with the practice of the "voluntary archives" common in the EU.
Film list

Audio documents – 1989
Selection of audio documents of the BBC Hungarian Radio service and The Radio Free Europe Hungarian service
Interview Collection

The Collection of Historical Interviews has collected and produced interviews with principal figures of the Hungarian history, public life and culture since 1985. Personalities from Hungary and abroad remember before our cameras and, by reviving the past, enrich the sources of contemporary history with important data and facts.
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Hungarian Motion Picture Treasure Collection

The founders of the Hungarian Motion Picture Treasure Collection (MMMA) are the Hungarian Foreign Trade Bank, which also acts as a sponsor, National Széchényi Library, the Hungarian National Film Archive and the Hungarian Television. The last two are the main sources of our collection as well but our stocks are also being expanded from the workshops of numerous movie producers and promoters. Excerpt from the Deed of Foundation of 1992: "The goal of the foundation is to create, develop and promote a universal Hungarian moving picture copy collection."

Currently, the collection comprises approximately 9,200 films and time-coded research cassettes created from them. From the Hungarian Television with films we have made it from the beginnings to 1970s and with electronic programs to the 1980s, while we receive films from the Hungarian Film Institute as they are being restored. At present, our collection can be researched on VHS research cassettes and they will be made available in digital format in the Multimedia Reading Room of National Széchényi Library, as soon as the necessary financial resources are available.

The database of the collection is under development. Our goal is to enter the basic data of video documents of the collection into our database, so that they become available for researchers. Until then, our colleagues are at the readers' service.