Bálint Kuzsinszky Archaeological Library
Address: 4 Záhony Street, Budapest, H-1031
Phone: +36-1-250-1650
Code: B 1187
Type: specialist library, academic library I.
Librarian: Erzsébet Méreg
Services:
llimited lending
reading room
limited photocopying
enquiries
list of new acquisitions
table of contents service
Opening hours:
Monday – Wednesday: 9.00 – 15.30
Thursday: CLOSED
Friday: 9.00 – 14.30
Main subject areas:
Prehistoric, Ancient and Migration Period Archaeology, including:
history of Budapest,
history of Hungarians and Hungary (in part)
world history,
ancient urban, economic, social and military history,
history of art, architecture, religion,
epigraphy,
museum education
The Budapest History Museum (BTM) has a unified library but its departments are currently in three separate locations. The Kuzsinszky Library at the Aquincum Museum serves primarily the Department of Ancient History and the Department of Prehistory and the Migration Period.
The library currently holds almost 18,000 volumes, a third of which consists of the 277 different (primarily archaeological) journals and annals, 87 of which are current. Thanks to the pre-1945 library of the Aquincum Museum, the collection contains numerous books which are rarely or never found in other specialist libraries. Invaluable parts of the library are the Special Collection with 90 titles and the Kuzsinszky collection, containing the books from the estate of Bálint Kuzsinszky, donated to the Museum by his widow in 1939.
The library has a descriptive catalogue (by author and title). Since 1995 catalogues also include keywords, series and geographical information. Since 2010, documents are recorded in an integrated computerised library system. We are also working on a catalogue of works by Aquincum Museum staff as well as other works on Budapest and Aquincum.
The main source of new acquisitions at the moment is publication exchange led by the Mediaeval Library of the Budapest History Museum. Thanks to the museum’s excellent professional contacts, the library receives many important books as gifts.
