Széchenyi National Casino

Abstract

The National Casino Association was founded in 1827 by István Széchenyi. For nearly 120 years, while it has existed, it was an integral part of the Hungarian public life and culture. The methodically collected and systematized library exceeded the country's public libraries qualitatively and quantitatively as well.

Terrible disasters hit the country and the members of the association as well: firstly the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the ensuing Hungarian War of Independence, then the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, later the First World War and the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, and finally the Second World War.

The Hungarian Minister of Interior dissolved the National Casino with a decree in the year 1945, because it proved to be a legal person contrary to the interests of the state. According to the association's statutes, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences inherits all assets of the Casino in case of dissolution. And so it happened, now the library of the National Casino is part of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ collection. We had to wait for a long time for the processing. We talk about nearly 20.000 books, but the processing hasn’t been finished yet, so we don’t know the exact number. Until the end of the year 2015 about half of the collection has been catalogued to the Aleph electronic catalogue, in MARC21 format.