ISSN Hungary
Member since 1973
Hungary was involved in the work of the initially called International Serials Data System (ISDS) from its very beginning, thanks to Judith Szilvássy, founding director of the Hungarian ISSN National Centre. She worked at the National Széchényi Library for 33 years. Under her leadership the Hungarian ISDS National Centre was established in 1973, and the identification of serial publications was implemented in Hungary.
In 1972 Judith Szilvássy got acquainted with Marie Rosenbaum, the founder of the International ISDS Centre, on the occasion of the IFLA Conference in Budapest. From then on, Judith not only initiated and managed the Hungarian National Centre, but also successfully represented the interests of the ISSN identification system at national and international levels, both within the relevant subsystem of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IFLA. She served for many years as chairman of the ISBD(S) Working Group, and she was working on the harmonisation of bibliographic description standards. She was also invited to the editorial board of The Serial Librarian in recognition of her achievements.
Judith was a member of the ISDS Governing Board from 1976 to 1992. During this time, in 1986, the Hungarian National Library organised the 12th ISDS Directors' Meeting in Budapest. Shortly thereafter, following the unforeseen death of Mary Rosenbaum, the founder of ISDS in 1987, she served as Director of the ISDS (now ISSN) International Centre in Paris. She handed over the management of the Hungarian agency in 1991, sharing all her national and international standardisation experience with her successor.
Elizabeth Gazdag (known also as Liza) took over the post of the Director of the Hungarian ISDS National Centre in 1991. She also became an active member of the ISSN network (renamed in 1993), and was also involved in all kinds of related standardisation processes.
A related story reflecting Liza’s devotion for perfection, often recalled by Regina Reynolds, a pillar of the ISSN network, which happened on the occasion of the ISO Annual Meeting in 2004. Liza was accomodated by Regina at her house and wanted to cook a fantastic goulash soup for her host. So she brought along not only the Hungarian red paprika, but she also smuggled in some authentic Hungarian vegetables packed in her suitcase for the sake of the sufficiently authentic flavour of the soup. Fortunately, the smuggling was undetected and the goulash was perfect.
Liza organised the 22nd Meeting of the Directors of the ISSN National Centres in 1997, ten years after the previous meeting in Budapest, at the National Széchényi Library. She worked in the national library for more than four decades, all the time at the ISSN agency, fulfilling the post of the head of the Hungarian ISSN National Centre for more than 30 years. She was particularly involved in the testing and implementation of the OSIRIS and later the Virtua database management systems. Even in the year of her retirement, she contributed to the ISSN network with her comments on ISSN+.
In the autumn of 2022, Dóra Kőszegi has taken over the management of ISSN Hungary, and has been working together with Marianna Kocsisné Szakács, who has been serving the Hungarian ISSN NC for three decades.
