Budapest Library Music Displays

This lovely sheet music display is from the National Library. While the sheet music is visually attractive, this display is also informational, with a paragraph about the Hungarian operetta composer, Franz Lehar. Sheet music is of interest to collectors because of the cover art, to cultural historians as artifacts of a period, and to musicians for the musical content.


The Central Library of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabo Library is the main library of Budapest's public library system. Located within the historic Wenckheim Palace (and additions), the public library has beautiful spaces for its various reading rooms and function rooms. And the display spaces are beautiful, too.









The Arts Reading Room of the Central Library is located in the former formal dining room, and by the former large ballroom, currently used as a function room. In this case, the sideboards house the reference collection for this reading room. The ballet and other dance reference books are in the case in the picture. Note the piano. The music library department of the main library is located in another palace across the street.


At the Polley Music Library, we display our materials, too, but not in such beautiful surroundings. As we create our March displays, we'll be taking inspiration from these beautiful displays from libraries in Budapest.

The Public Music Library in Budapest

Budapest's public library, the Metropolitan Ervin Szabo Library, has a very large music collection located in the Palffy Palace across the street from the main library. A lovely fenced garden with a statue of Bartok enhances the facility. The building is beautiful, but the music library faces the challenges of providing modern music library service in the historic structure.

The music collection focuses on classical music, jazz and folk music. Popular music, especially on compact disc, is located in the popular materials collections of the public library. The music collection contains a huge number of scores, as well as periodicals, music books, and audio and video recordings.

As with most libraries, the librarians are working hard to increase patronage. To this end, they offer concerts -- many in the music library itself, with a few in the main library. To make space for the performers and concertgoers, the librarians move book shelves and tables, and voila, a concert space is created. My first thought on seeing the garden was what a perfect place it would be for a guitarist to perform on a summer evening.

I had a wonderful visit at the music library and with the music librarians. In Budapest and in Lincoln we share many of the same library issues; we're all working hard to turn challenges into opportunities and to ensure that our music users will have access to the collections and information they and you need.