Chapters from the history of the digitization of Hungarian cultural heritage – 30 years of the ARCANUM publishing house

Abstract

The digitization of the Hungarian cultural heritage has a history of about three decades, while the integration of information technology with library activities looks back to an even longer history. The National Széchényi Library elaborated the computer system of the Hungarian National Bibliography (MNB) in the 1970s. From 1978, MNB's printed issues were already generated by computer. The National Periodicals Database was launched in 1993, and MNB's CD-ROM edition was issued in 1995. It was between these two milestones that the internet-based content provision service of the Hungarian Electronic Library began in 1994. We can say without exaggeration that the 1990s were a heroic age of library computerization and digitization in Hungary. In the early 1990s, a new player entered this scene: the Arcanum software development company, which has become a major digitization partner of memory institutions and the largest content provider in the country respectively.