The first twenty years of the Librarians’ Handbook – from the perspective of the author and the user

Abstract

In 2021, two key personalities of our profession, Sán­dor Katsányi and István Papp, celebrated their 90th birthday. The Library Monitor greets the two cele­brated professionals with this article that pays tribute to the standard work of librarianship, the Librarians’ Handbook and its validity to this day. Both experts contributed to the creation of the five-volume hand­book: István Papp as one of the editors, and Sándor Katsányi as a co-author of one of the chapters. The author of the article herself was also involved in the creation of the handbook, and as a university lec­turer she is still constantly using it. She notes that the lasting value of the handbook is, among other things, its approach: the very important premise is that librarianship is not a theory derived from prac­tice but a practice based on a well-laid theoretical foundation; and that the task of librarians is not only to preserve, manage and provide information carri­ers, but also to manage knowledge in its complexity.