If you want to discover the secrets of the ELTE University Library's history and the treasures hidden within its walls, explore the library palace with an audioguide. The doors of the country's first state-owned public library will be revealed as you have never seen before.
The audioguide tour, available in English and Hungarian, takes you on a guided tour of the library's imposing rooms, guided by the first named librarian of the Library, Florentius Morus, or Heléne Platz, the first female employee of the Library, and gives you interesting insights into the events of the past, the architectural features of the institution, the motifs of the sgraffito in the lobby and the frescoes in the Reading Hall, as well as the highlights of our collection. The guided tour of the library offers the possibility to customise the tour to your wishes, and the QR codes on the guides will help you to find out even the smallest details. More information on how to use the service is available on our website.
The ELTE University Library and Archives offers extended opening hours for readers and students on weekdays and Saturdays between the 5th of May 2025 and the 14th of June 2025 until 22.00 hours. Our new community space offers the opportunity to learn, relax, use kitchen facilities and free computer access.
Through our constantly expanding services, we aim to provide ELTE students with an efficient and effective learning opportunity, with the support of the Students' Union and in cooperation with the students.
The following services are available between 20.00 and 22.00 on weekdays and between 18.00 and 22.00 on Saturdays:
study and reading in the Reading Hall, use of computers in the ground floor community room, access to kitchen equipment (fridge, microwave, hot and cold water and soda dispenser) in the community room kitchen,
picking up books requested online during the day from the pickup locker and borrowing them through the self-lending terminal
returning books using the smart shelf,
self-service printing and photocopying using a pre-purchased card,
free self-service scanning.
During the extended opening hours, reception and general information is provided. The lobby, the Reading Hall and the community space are open to the public only with a pre-purchased library card.
Everyone is welcome and we wish all our students a successful semester and exam period!
The ELTE–NFI University Film Club continues the series of screenings and discussions. We welcome university citizens from all faculties of ELTE.
„Where foreign soldiers – as allies or conquerors – establish contact with the population of a country, children are born out of wedlock.” – says Dr. Barbara Stelzl-Marx, a renowned researcher on the subject and Vice-Chair of the Austrian Commission for the UN. „Hungary underwent similar traumas during the Soviet occupation, but the search for Hungarian 'war children' has barely begun. We must admit that the war is still not over.” – said the director, Márta Mészáros.
Aurora Borealis – Northern Lights is a twisty family story that explores the depths of the relationship between mother and daughter, across two timelines. Olga, a successful lawyer living in Vienna, finds her elderly mother Maria unexpectedly in a coma. While Mary hovers between life and death, Olga discovers a deeply hidden secret. Her increasingly passionate search takes her back to post-war Europe in the 1950s, where she finds herself at the end of her journey: a man she never knew before. The film speaks with a woman's sensitivity in unusual situations about the drama of identity crisis, the never-healing wounds of war in a fragmented Europe, the passing of the dead and the liberating power of exposing lies and silences.
Date: 30 April 2025, 18.00
Venue: University Square campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3. fszt., corridor next to the cloakroom)
The main roles are played by Ildikó Tóth, Mari Törőcsik, Franciska Törőcsik, Jákob Ladányi.
In the post-screening discussion, our guests are Ildikó Tóth, Jászai Mari Award-winning Hungarian actress, a deserving and outstanding artist, one of the main characters of the film, and Gergely Schell, a trauma counselling psychologist and family therapist.
Ildikó Tóth Gergely Schell
Due to the limited number of seats, pre-registration is possible at the following link:
The presentation of the recently published volumes of the Mátyás Bél Neolatin Workshop of the Research Centre for the Humanities will take place on 15 April 2025 at 16.00 at the ELTE University Library and Archives.
Sára Sánta’s monograph on the former director of our library, István Schönvisner, the father of Hungarian ancient studies, will be presented by Pál Ács, literary historian. The publication of Mátyás Bél’s surviving manuscripts has benn going on for a decade and a half. The newly published eighth volume, which contains descriptions of Temes, Csanád, Arád, Zaránd and Békés counties, will be presented by Krisztina Tóth, head of the archives. The volumes are available for purchase on the spot. The invitation and the detailed programme are accessible here. All visitors are welcome!
The ELTE University Library and Archives will be closed from 15.00 on Wednesday 12 March 2025 until 14.00 on Thursday 13 March 2025 for technical reasons.
On 13 March 2025 from 14.00 we will be open according to our usual opening hours.
We are pleased to inform our dear readers that the relocation of the library's external warehouse has been completed, and the books and doctoral dissertations stored there are now available again. At the same time, the organization of the journals has been finalized, and they are now also accessible to our readers. Thank you for your patience and understanding during the relocation process!
