Living heritage of one and a half century. Milestones in the history of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) Library

Abstract

The Hungarian Central Statistical Office was established as a department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce in 1867, shortly after the compromise betweenAustriaandHungary, and became an independent institution in 1871. Károly Keleti, its “founding father”, realised that it was essential to maintain a modern special library in order to develop Hungarian statistics onto a higher level. During the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, the collections and the influence of the library were rapidly growing, and in 1897 it got the status of a national special library. The most important legacy of the decades between 1955 and 1983 is related to starting historical statistical research and to library automation, as well as to the achievements of research support activities. In recent years, the most influential development in the life of the library has been its opening to the entire population of the country.