THE HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY
The Hungarian Royal School of Industrial Art developed from the workshop of wood carving which
was founded by the Országos Magyar Királyi Mintarajztanoda and Rajztanárképezde in 1880. The library collected
the technical books of style and ornamentation in great number to create a good background for the fields of
education. In the year of the millenium this school became independent as the control of the Mintarajztanoda
ceased and moved, along with the Museum of Industrial Art, to the Palace of Industrial Art, which belonged to
Lechner Ödön and Pártos Gyula.
Moving into the same building the libraries of the two institutions joined so the total of books was almost 3000
and the collection of samplepages, which were very important for education and for the craftsmen visiting the
library (they were recorded one by one!) numbered approximately 40 000. Ornamental Art, the journal of the School
of Industrial Art, provided an alternative to the foreign designs offered by the samlepages, by publishing the
works of the teachers and students of the school to create a model for the Hungarian craftsmen and amateurs in
the particularly difficult period of WW I. This magazine offered information about the view and achievements of
the education of the school all over the country and the art pedagogical mission of the school was able to realize
its purpose through its relationship with the readers. The joined library of the museum and the school was the most
important library of the industrial art field for half a century in Hungary. After the reorganization following
the WW2 the school began to operate under the name of the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts in 1946. In 1954 a
section of the institution moved into the building of Zoltán Farkasdy in Zugligeti Street. At this time the library
was divided into two: the section in Zugligeti Street included books to support education and the technical
literature of contemporary object and space design and the museum housed the section supporting the research of the
museum collection. Thus most of the design history material stayed there.
These two libraries have had close connection with each other since then and have been building complementary
collections according to their functions.
By the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Academy, education already included most of the visual arts and
the collection of the library was growing gradually in harmony with the main fields of education (space design,
object design, graphic design). As the university offers certificates not only in design but also in art management
and in teacher training, our library ensures the technical literature for these fields of education, too.
In the summer of 2003 our library moved into the rooms of the main building which were freshly converted precisely
for this purrpose, so it is centrally located: guests entering the university are enticed by the colourful volumes
of the friendly reading-room from behind a glasswall. The new library rooms were designed by György Frank,
András Göde, Balázs Kéry and Viktória Wehner.
Library Library's staff |