Twenty years of an abstracting service – the column „From library and information science journals” between 2000 and 2019

Abstract

Documentation work in the field of library science has a long tradition in the LIS Library of the Hungarian Library Institute. One example of this is the abstracting journal entitled Library and Documentation Literature started in 1969 which later became part of the journal Könyvtári Figyelő under the title „From library and information science journals (Abstracts)”. This article discusses the past 20 years only, of which the former editor of the abstracting part provides an overview. She takes an account of the changes in the preparation of this column, the work-ing methods, the technological background (e.g. da-tabase migration), the quantity and formats of the re-viewed foreign journals, as well as in the editors and authors. Since 2000 more than 6,500 abstracts were published, the majority of which are original ones (made by contributors),while a smaller part consists of abstracts translated from original journals. The editors have always followed the principles set by their predecessors when selecting articles from foreign journals, i.e. to prefer those addressing new perspectives of librarianship and information work worldwide, discussing “traditional” issues of LIS on the basis of latest theoretical and practical results, providing tangible lessons for solving actual tasks in Hungarian librarianship, or describing the whole of librarianship or its specific areas in more developed countries, the neighbouring countries and develop-ing countries respectively. By selecting an issue every five years, the study tries to outline the state and current problems of international librarianship, development trends, and presents best practice ex-amples as well. It is hoped that these abstracts and the SDI-service based on them will continue to ben-efit Hungarian librarianship in the future, too.