Cooperation agreement with the National Library of China

On June 27, 2016 a delegation of high-ranking officials from the National Library of China paid a visit to National Széchényi Library. Members of the delegation were Mr. Chen Li, Executive Deputy Director of the National Library of China, Ms. Ma Jing, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Division of the National Library of China, Mr. Xie Qiang, Deputy Director of the Operation Management Division of the National Library of China, Ms. Wang Yang, Deputy Director of the Chinese Language Acquisition and Cataloguing Department of the National Library of China, and Mr. Hao Jinmin, associate research librarian of the International Cooperation Division of the National Library of China.

Members of the delegation were accompanied by Mr. Guo Xiaoguang, Counselor for Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Hungary.

In National Széchényi Library, the delegation was received by Director-General László Tüske. The Hungarian national library and its history were presented to the guests during a guided tour led by István Elbe, Director of NSZL’s Directorate of Information Services. They were also shown some of the treasures, including several, partly China-related documents, held by the Collection of Early Printed Books of the Library and by the Collection of Posters and Small Prints.

As a peak of the visit, a cooperation agreement was signed between the two national libraries. Based on this agreement, directors of the two libraries and Publishing Hungary program coordinator Zsuzsa Szabó of Balassi Institute discussed the plan of a joint book exhibition.

In 2016, Hungary will be guest of honor at the Beijing International Book Fair. An accompanying event of the large-scale event will be an exhibition, a joint project of Balassi Institute, National Széchényi Library and the National Library of China.

After visiting the Hungarian national library, Executive Deputy Director of the National Library of China Chen Li visited the Library of Parliament and Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library, too. During talks held with the directors of the two Hungarian libraries, possibilities of a closer cooperation and exchange of experience were discussed, since the structure and scope of activities of the National Library of China are similar to those of the three afore-mentioned Hungarian institutions.

On June 28, the delegation visited two rural cultural centers of Hungary: Visegrád and Esztergom.

At the end of the program in Hungary, Director-General László Tüske gave a dinner in honor of the delegation. The festive dinner was attended by Government Commissioner Géza Szőcs, Chairman of the National Library Board of Trustees, Szilárd Markója, Director of the Library of Parliament and Péter Dippold, Director of Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library.

The event in pictures