Domokos Kosáry – librarian, library director and science organizer – was born 100 years ago

Abstract

The Hungarian scientific community celebrates in 2013 the 100th anniversary of the birth of Domokos Kosáry. He was an academician, historian, winner of the Széchenyi Grand Prize. The prominent scientist was known to the wider public first of all as a university faculty member, a staff member of the Institute of History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with significant research achievements at the international level, and as an outstanding figure of public life. In the years of neglect, when he was less in the foreground for political reasons, he created in a short time a high-standard university library at the first Hungarian Agricultural University, which both carried out and supported research work. From 1951 he was responsible for university libraries at the National Library Centre; from 1952 he acted as librarian and library director of the Central Agricultural University Library, Gödöllő. In nearly 7 years, till his arrest in 1957, he set the professional foundations of the institution by organising acquisitions, bibliographical and scientific activities, as well as a wide-ranging exchange of publications, by building out external relations. It was him who launched the Review of Agricultural History and other series of library publications, and organised national professional events.