Tibor Sándor Receives Pro Budapest Award

For over three decades, library specialist Tibor Sándor led the activities of the Budapest Collection at the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library until his retirement last year.

Traditionally, in connection with the city's birthday on November 17, the mayor presents the titles of Honorary Citizen of Budapest, the Pro Budapest Award, and the Pro Urbe Budapest awards. This year, on the occasion of Budapest's 151st birthday, the awards and recognitions were presented at Wenckheim Palace, home to the 120-year-old Central Library of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library. Tibor Sándor had the honor of receiving this recognition from Mayor Gergely Karácsony at the very place where he dedicated decades of service to the city.

Photos from the awards ceremony

Tibor Sándor began his career in 1986 as a photo librarian at the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library, where he remained a key contributor for decades. In 1992, he was entrusted with managing the Budapest Collection, a role he held until his retirement in 2023. A nationally recognized authority in digitization and local history research, he oversaw the continuous development of the collection's bibliographic work. Since 2011, the bibliography of Budapest's history has been accessible both as part of the library's catalog and as a standalone resource. He also played an innovative role in the creation, modernization, and ongoing development of the unified content discovery system for the Corvina online catalog.
Funds were secured through successful tenders, particularly for various digitization projects. He actively contributed to making the library's documents and publications widely accessible on both the library's website and the Hungaricana portal. A prime example of this is the Budapesti Czím és Lakásjegyzék (Budapest Address and Housing Register). By expanding and accelerating digitization, it has enriched the offerings, with particular attention given to the image archive and special documents such as posters and small prints. Every year, under his professional guidance, he provided information, photos, and blueprints related to the history of the capital for dozens of public building reconstructions, exhibitions, films, books, and magazine articles.
Under his leadership, the Budapest Collection presented the public with several vibrant and spectacular exhibitions. He also played an active role in maintaining professional publications. For the 150th anniversary of the unification of Budapest, he curated a traveling exhibition of 21 paintings titled Our Heritage: Budapest. In collaboration with the Budapest City Archives, he also contributed to the creation and development of the Hungaricana Időgép (Hungaricana Time Machine) database. As a result, the map database application has become even more modern, clearer, and more user-friendly for a wide range of users, with a unified search interface, consistent result displays, and 3D visualization.
The Budapest Collection has been highly active on social media platforms, reaching approximately one million users annually, thereby increasing the collection's visibility and visitor engagement.

The award recognizes his decades of outstanding work, and we would like to congratulate him for it.

Photos: Local Government Office of Budapest