The ELTE–NFI University Film Club continues the series of screenings and discussions. We welcome university citizens from all faculties of ELTE.

The Devil Beats His Wife is a social satire criticizing the soft dictatorship of the Kádár era, which also holds up a mirror to the familiar situations of everyday family life. The story vividly portrays the world of "gulyáskommunismus" (goulash communism), which offered relative prosperity, while at the same time lifting the veil on the structural problems that lurk deep below. Jolán Kajtár invites her boss and his family to spend August 20 with her relatives in the countryside. Géza Vetró, a strict and work-obsessed party functionary, arrives with his wife and daughter in the Balaton highlands, hoping to relax for a few hours in the fresh air. The Kajtárs do their best to ensure that their influential guests are not lacking in anything, but at the same time they try to make the meeting an advantage for themselves.

The film was a great success at home and abroad. Among other prizes, the film was awarded the top prize at the 1978 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Hyères Humour Prize. In style and subject matter, it forms a transition between two characteristic trends in Hungarian film history, the generational public sentiment films of the 1970s and the grotesque satires of the 1980s. While the documentary tradition is strongly influenced by the small-scale realism of the depiction of situations, there are also elements of the grotesque, which point out seemingly insoluble contradictions with the double-edged weapon of humour.

Date: 19 March 2025, 18.00

Venue: University Square campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3. fszt., corridor next to the cloakroom)

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hX2KfXdNpw

Starring Ildikó Pécsi, Erzsi Pásztor, Lajos Szabó, Anatol Constantin.

In the post-screening discussion, our guest will be Erzsi Pásztor, Kossuth, Jászai Mari and Béla Balázs Award-winning Hungarian actress, a merited artist, one of the main characters of the film.

Due to the limited number of seats, pre-registration is possible at the following link:

https://www.ajk.elte.hu/content/veri-az-ordog-a-feleseget-andras-ferenc-filmje-1977.e.1839

Correspondence about the film club is welcome via eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

The ELTE–NFI Filmklub on Facebook 

The new version of the Quality Management Handbook is now available on the ELTE Digital Institutional Repository (EDIT). 

The Quality Management Handbook is the basic document of the quality management system of the ELTE University Library Service (ULA), which summarises the quality policy of all member libraries with the aim of increasing the satisfaction of lecturers, researchers, students and library visitors.

In addition to the necessary streamlining, the new edition includes the quality objectives renewed in 2023, the renewed strategic objectives set in 2024 and the renewed mission statement and vision statement, which were adopted by the Library Council at its first meeting in 2025.

The Handbook contributes to the effective cooperation of all ELTE librarians committed to quality management and to sustainable, value-creating, information and knowledge transfer activities adapted to the challenges of the 21st century.

Emerald is hosting a webinar on March 11th, 2025 at 5pm about Emerald Premier service.

Speaker: Radka Krivankova

Topics covered:

Get the most out of your library subscription to Emerald journals!

• Emerald Insight platform functionality 'browse' and 'search'
• Publish at Emerald
• Introduction to academic writing
• Open Access

The webinar is in English, free of charge, but registration is required.

Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7479146818223870558

The ELTE–NFI University Film Club continues the series of screenings and discussions. We welcome university citizens from all faculties of ELTE.

As we approach the 177th anniversary of the 1848–1849 Revolution and War of Independence, we commemorate the historic events. László Lugossy's film dramatically explores the moral dilemmas that arise after the defeated revolutions.

The 1848 War of Independence was defeated, and the Hungarian army laid down arms at Világos. Ferenc Majláth, Lieutenant-General of the Hussars, is conscripted into a punishment squadron. His commander, the Colonel, escapes.  He vows to his comrades that if the country needs him, they will rejoin the battle line. On his return home, he sinks into depression, refusing to cooperate with the Austrian regime. One day, he is joined by the Colonel, who organises a shadow army for Kossuth. The next day his whole family is arrested. He is confronted with a serious dilemma: is it worth surviving if you only compromise with the system? How can you live if you chase by day the very ideas you are passionate about at night? How long is it noble and honourable to hold on to ideas, and when does it put the family in unnecessary danger? Petals, flowers, wreaths is the tragedy of a man unable to forget and compromise. Not least, the film is one of the most beautifully photographed works in the history of Hungarian cinema. The most poetic film of '48, this Kafkaesque story won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Date: 12 March 2025, 18.00

Venue: University Square campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3. fszt., corridor next to the cloakroom)

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NWk1Us3HP4

Starring György Cserhalmi, Lajos Őze, Grazyna Szapolowska, Jirí Adamira, Boguslaw Linda, Péter Malcsiner.

László Lugossy, the director of the film and Tamás Dobszay, historian, habilitated associate professor of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Hungarian History at the ELTE University of Applied Sciences, scientific director of the Hungarian Agricultural Museum and Library.

Due to the limited number of seats, pre-registration is possible at the following link:

https://ajk.elte.hu/content/szirmok-viragok-koszoruk-lugossy-laszlo-filmje-1984.e.1823

Correspondence about the film club is welcome via eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

The ELTE–NFI Filmklub on Facebook 

The ELTE–NFI University Film Club continues the series of screenings and discussions. We welcome university citizens from all faculties of ELTE.

The legendary rock bands of 1980s Hungary, Hobo Blues Band and P. Mobil, will present a fictionalised version of themselves, exploring the atmosphere of the iconic rock concerts of the time and the social milieu in which they tried to assert themselves.  Lóránt Schuster, László Földes, Gyula Bill Deák, Egon Póka and others were in the same situation as the characters they portrayed: their bands were long refused recognition by official cultural policy, while young people attended their concerts by the tens of thousands.

The Bald Dog conveyed their generational sense of life and the civic rebellion of those outside the system. What makes it special, however, is not only the documentation of the Colorado band's concerts and the authentic reconstruction of situations taken from life, but also Szomjas' unique narrative style. The film became a cult film, and contributed significantly to the subsequent success of the bands, even though the Hungarian Record Company banned the record, which was prepared for release, and it was not finally released until 1993. It found its audience, with more than half a million people tuning in – many secretly recording the songs on cassette tapes. The film is a true Hungarian rock career story, a perfect record of the '80s lifestyle, and not least one of the best music films ever made, featuring songs from the biggest bands of the era alongside the Hobo Blues Band. Allen Ginsberg even makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Date: 5 March 2025, 18.00

Venue: University Square campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3. fszt., corridor next to the cloakroom)

Dr. Csaba Bálint, founder of the Rock Museum, lawyer and Dr. Bence Csatári, historian, researcher at the Office of the National Remembrance Committee, author of several rock history books.

Due to the limited number of seats, pre-registration is possible at the following link:

https://www.ajk.elte.hu/content/kopaszkutya-a-magyar-rock-film-szomjas-gyorgy-filmje-1981.e.1825

Correspondence about the film club is welcome via eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

The ELTE–NFI Filmklub on Facebook 

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will celebrate the 200th anniversary in 2025. Among its members are many distinguished students and teachers who have left their mark not only on the Academy but also on the history of our institution. Ferenc Toldy (1805–1875), literary historian, university professor and former director of our library, was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1830.

Ferenc Toldy, then known as Schedel, was appointed head of the University Library in 1843. Toldy, whose original training was as a doctor, already had considerable library experience, as he had been the Academy’s secretary from 1835 and had managed the library himself, organising and registering it before its ceremonial opening in 1844. As director of the University Library, he drew up the rules for the use of the library of the Academy in 1848, which he then introduced in the University Library with minor modifications in the same year.

Ferenc Toldy was at the helm of the University Library for more than three decades, and this period was one of the most turbulent and challenging for the library. The library building was in a state of virtual disrepair when Toldy took over, and throughout his directorship he struggled to build a new library building and to gain ownership of the land on which the library stood. The results of his efforts were still to be seen, but the new library building was not yet ready to be handed over. The internal life of the library also underwent significant changes under his directorship. He established an auxiliary library of major national and foreign lexicons and dictionaries to assist researchers in their work, and he also opened a journal reader. During his directorship, he was careful to surround himself with the best staff, employing János Garay the poet, Antal Reguly the linguist, Iván Nagy the historian and József Szinnyei the bibliographer. He was himself a major scholar, one of the greatest critics and aestheticians of his time, and is credited with the systematic scholarly shaping of Hungarian literary history.

The ELTE University Library and Archives, as a member of the international Coimbra Group (CG) Heritage Working Group, is pleased to invite all interested parties to the Coimbra Group webinar “AI Ethics and Governance” on Thursday 13 March 2025 from 15:00 to 16:30 CET, with keynote speaker Francesca Rossi, IBM Fellow and IBM AI Ethics Global Leader.

The public webinar of the Coimbra Group, which includes Eötvös Loránd University among its members, is open to students, academics and members of staff from all universities belonging to the group, as well as to all interested members of the wider higher education community. The event aims to explore the implications, opportunities and challenges of AI for higher education. Registration and more information is available here.

Emerald Publishing has offered trial access to their largest database (premier package) until March 31, 2025. The database content can be accessed by connecting to the ELTE internet network (either directly on campus or remotely using a VPN service) and, subject to the terms of use, can be used without restrictions until the end of the trial period.

The database and modules are part of the EISZ offering and can be subscribed to through EISZ.
The database consists of 13 modules, 9 of which are related to economic science, but there are also modules related to healthcare, education, engineering and information and knowledge management.

The journals are available at the following link: https://www.emerald.com/insight/

On Monday, 24 February 2025, the ELTE Savaria Library and Archives will be open from 12.00 for the national written round of the National Peter Bod Library User Study Competition.

Thank you for your understanding!