Chapter 27 - The history of Hungarian museum documentation, its present application and future aspects

Abstract

Efforts to standardize and centralize the coordination of museums in Hungary started in the 1890s. The formulation of the principles and their practical application in all aspects of museums began in the period before the First World War. The problems of documentation, recording and inventory were also discussed. Since the Central Advisory Board of Museums and Libraries was authorized only to give recommendations and to suggest different methods, the results were rather rare. An investigation into documentation and recording methods showed that there were about 28 kinds of inventory and documentation system throughout the country. Most of them were used for the purpose of administration with very little or no technical or scientific information. At the same time, there were about half a million museum objects with no data given about them.