How to Use the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library in 2026

The Human Resources Committee of the General Assembly of Budapest approved the Terms of Use at its meeting on December 15, 2025. Therefore, starting from January 1, 2026, several points will be amended.

The full text of the Terms of Use valid in 2026 will be posted soon.

Summary of Key Changes to the Terms of Use:

Membership Fees (Effective January 1, 2026):

Readers can pay memberships in our Libraries for 1 day, 6 months or 12 months, the membership for 3 months is discontinued due to underutilisation.

In all 47 MESZL-branch libraries, the library pass for 1 year is HUF 12.000 - about the price of 2 books - and for 6 months HUF 9.000. This is the most optimal choice for those who wish to browse in multiple libraries.

The usual discounts remain unchanged, see more details on our website.

Our subscribed databases and the e-book loaning system can still be used free of charge as part of our memberships with borrowing privileges, those, who do not have one, can register online for 1 year, as opposed to 30 days, so there is no need to re-register every month and the yearly fee is more agreeable.

Good news for our readers borrowing e-books: from now on, you can borrow 2 e-books instead of 1 at the same time, for 2 weeks at most - this is made possible by the continuous expansion of our e-book stock.

Online registration fees for database usage and e-book borrowing (Effective January 1, 2026):

Fees for any other services are unchanged.

Effective January 1, 2026, the loan of DVDs and language learning packs are free of charge.

To make library usage easier, our readers can borrow books by showing the digital barcode on their mobile phones. The digital barcode can be accessed on the MESZL website and MESZLOnline after logging in. In the libraries, which have self-checkout machines - eg. Central Library, Boulevard Library, Petőfi 200 Memorial Library of Soroksár - you can use the Qulto eCard mobile app to access our services.

We have extended our convenience services for borrowing documents. Effective January 1, 2026, we are sending a notice e-mail on the 7th day after the due date for readers, who have given us and confirmed their e-mail address. The notice e-mail sent 1 day before the due date remains in effect as well, so please pay special attention to it in order to avoid any late fees. It is important to remember, however, that the library cannot guarantee the arrival of the e-mails we sent, they can be put into the Spam folder of your e-mail account. In the Qulto eCard mobile app, you can turn on push up notifications for due dates.

The late fees remain unchanged in 2026.

Effective January 1, 2026, there will be an option to borrow equipment for local use in some branch libraries. First, the equipment of the gamer room in Children's Library of Terézváros and tablets for reading an extended stock of periodicals in Boulevard Library will be available to borrow. For this, you will need a membership with borrowing privileges, and the equipment can only be used in the library. See more details in the Terms of Use: Article IV, Section 3. Point g.
We are planning to expand the list of loanable equipments and the list of libraries with this service available.

We wish Happy Holidays to all our users and look forward to welcoming you back in 2026!

Photos: MESZL