The present and the future are on the shelves!
Develop yourself.
3000+
Books
100%
FREE
*for rent
Required
readings
Economic
Education
Healthy
Lifestyle
Personal
Development
The Library of Bethlen Gábor College – A Brief History
After the nationalization of the college in the early 1950s, the school administration decided to create a permanent library available to the students. They gathered the books that were in the classrooms, as most classrooms had their own libraries and student librarians. The Bethlen Gábor Documentation Library initially donated approximately 2,500 volumes.
Gradually, the collection was formed, and library activities began. Students were welcomed by Irénke Józsa – known to everyone as Aunt Irénke – who carried out her work with love, dedication, and conscientiousness for decades, until July 1990, the year of her retirement, when she passed the baton to me. Former students who return to the school still look for her with affection and interest.
In the beginning, the modest collection gradually but steadily grew year by year—mainly through purchases—using the limited allocated budget. Books were also donated by former teachers and students.
The events of 1989 brought changes to the life of the library as well, fortunately in a positive direction. The budget increased, and the number of donors grew.
In recent years, a large part of the growth of the book collection has been due to donations. Additionally, through projects and funding competitions, our library receives many valuable publications, and the National Library series consistently reaches us. Most donors are institutions, organizations, and private individuals from Hungary, as well as former teachers and alumni contributing their books. This year’s collection growth is thanks to winning a project within the Márai program and our dedicated supporters. Among the donations are 45 volumes from the new Jókai series, the complete Szent Johanna Gimi series received from the Reformed College in Pécs, three volumes on handmade paper watermarks from print shops in Transylvania and Subcarpathian Ukraine, as well as a valuable donation of books from Dr. Kubassek János.
At present, the library holds 30,862 items, most of which are arranged on freely accessible shelves, and their classification is done according to the Universal Decimal System (UDC).
Our library consists of two rooms: one serves as a reading room, and the other as a storage area.
The reading room houses works of Romanian and Hungarian literature, entertainment literature, books for children and teenagers, as well as reference works for local consultation—lexicons, encyclopedias, dictionaries, newspapers, and magazines. The furniture allows activities to be carried out for an entire class and supports the organization of various educational activities.
The storage area contains specialized works that support teachers’ activities, art albums, foreign language textbooks, and scientific works. Our goal is that, in addition to mandatory and recommended readings, we expand the collection with contemporary artistic literature, books for youth and children, as well as educational and popular science works.
The library also has a computer with internet access. Processing activities are supported by the integrated library system Szirén, and the electronic processing of documents is carried out continuously.
