MESZL Online - Help

The MESZL Online is the collective search engine for the documents from the stock of Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library and the Hungarian and foreign sources available via outside databases. This catalogue ensures accessibility to the bibliographical data of documents, up-to-date information of their location, a summary of the contents, recommendations and complete texts of many digital contents. After login (with reader barcode and password), the services relating to the documents can be accessed: storage request, extending due date, reservation, query of previous book loans, remote payment.

Simple search
The simple (“single-window”) search bar can be found on the home page and enables free-word searches in the records of the documents:



For example: you can search for words in the title, the name of the author, publication data, descriptors, phrases from the summaries. You can write multiple various key data at the same time in any order. In this case, the system returns results that EACH contain ALL keywords. If it is important to have the words next to each other in the record (e.g. exact title, first and last name together), put the keywords in quotation (“ ”). Using the * (asterisk) symbol helps your search if you only remember the beginning or end of the word. Hungarian and foreign articles (“a”, “az”, “the”, etc.) and conjunctions (“és”, “de”, “and”, “but” etc.) cannot be searched for. The system does not differentiate lower- and upper-case letters, and by default does not differentiate letters with and without accents.

Advanced search
If you want to search using specific criteria, clicking the icon will open the Advanced search interface (clicking the same icon will close it back up).



You can give multiple search parameters at the same time and execute a combined search. By default, the interface has four search fields (clicking the + sign opens further fields).

All fields functions as the simple search bar. This is the broadest search option, it searches the whole record of the document (see above).
Author lets you search for the author, editor, translator of a document, but you can also search for e.g. performers and actors of audiovisual documents.
Title could be e.g. main title, subtitle, series title or even the title of a chapter or section in a document (novel, play, essay, article). The full title is not necessary for a successful search, only one or two significant words of the title can be used.
Publication year or time period can be set with the “slider” at the bottom of the interface (not usable for volumes of periodicals and newspapers).
Library field allows you to search by location in the stocks of the Central Library Collections and the branch libraries of MESZL (you can choose more than one location at the same time).
Next to the fields, you can set more criteria for your search from drop-down lists:
Using Subject gives you results relating to a certain subject matter. You can use technical terms (e.g. science area, profession, concept, genre) and also proper nouns. For example: if you are searching for technical documents not by a person, but about a person (literary analysis, recension, etc.), you can use the person’s name as a subject with this option.
Words written into Full Text search field will only give results from texts digitalized or owned by MESZL (from the PDF files connected to the record).

On our advanced search interface, you can choose accent-sensitive search for the fields Keyword, Title and Subject.
For example:
1. keyword (without refining): Eger >> 2.231 results (“Eger”, “egér” and “éger” will be among the results).
2. keyword (with accent-sensitive search): Eger >> 912 results (“egér” and “éger” will be excluded from the results).


On the right side of the search interface, you can choose in advance specific document types and sources, as well.
The MESZL Collections are the databases made by MESZL, developed over decades, which processes in more detail (analytically) the stock contained in the main collecting policy of the library, ensuring that the subjects of the documents can be retrieved and are thematically searchable. Our collections are accessible in the Databases menu of the Online Library page by clicking on the Self-built databases tab.

Choosing outside databases among Online Resource, you can get document records as results, but the full document can be opened via the link in the descriptive record. These digital contents can only be accessed by registered readers of the library, except for the free access “Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár” /Hungarian Electronic Library/, “Digitális Irodalmi Akadémia” /Digital Literary Academy/ and the Directory of Open Access Books. For more information, visit the Databases menu of the Online Library page.

Results and filters

Whether you use the Simple or the Advanced Search, you will receive a result list with Filters. On mobile devices, the Filters can be activated by clicking on the icon above the results list. These filters organize the data of the found document records, showing how many results are connected to each filter (Person, Document type, Source, etc.) in the results list. With default settings, every criteria shows the five most frequent results, but these lists can be expanded by clicking on the arrows under the results. In the filter, you can narrow the results by ticking the boxes in front of the data (starting with one criterion first then further filters can be applied). Any unnecessary filters can be deleted with the “bin” pictogram.



By default, the results list is ordered by relevancy, but in the heading of the list you can change the Order to alphabetical (by Title or Creator) or chronical (by Publication). The list displays the records in Compound view. You can also change this in the heading, or clicking the Full screen… option at the bottom of the record to see the complete description. Ticking the boxes next to the titles you can choose and put the needed items into the basket (upper-right: “Basket functions”), then you can download these records in the form you need, giving you the option to create bibliographies.

Item data, reader actions

Under the results, you can open the list of items connected to the title (document). The item data is not shown for online (physically not available) documents and also for sections of documents and articles. The locations of the latter ones can be traced back through the Source document written into the record, where the exact page number can also be seen. If this is a section of a book (e.g. novel, essay), then a link will send you to the document containing the item, and you can find the item data in there, but if it is an article, then you have to search for the title of the source periodical separately (in many cases the periodical can be read electronically, the record can give you a good starting point).

If items are connected to the record, clicking on the item number under the record will open the table of locations. The MESZL libraries are ordered by district (postal codes), but if you only want to check one library, you can write the street name of the library into the search field above the table, or use “KK” for the Central Library, narrowing the list this way.

In case of a storage item, you can see above the table a “Document request” button, which gives access to the request interface. Document requests can only be made in the Central Library during opening hours (except in the half hour prior to closing).

For other (loanable or loaned, even “szállítás alatt” /in transit/) items, you can also make a reservation using the “Document request” button. This is a remote access service, but only for registered readers, who gave us their e-mail address. Details about the service and its prices can be found in the Online use menu of the Usage page.
The up-to-date status of storage requests and reservations can be checked by clicking the reader Profile (on the heading to the right), where the action can be cancelled under the Remote use tab before the processing of the request started.

Other remote services

Extension of the due dates and payment of fees can be done remotely for our registered users in the reader profile, which can be opened by clicking the icon on the top-right. You can also find the “Kölcsönzéstörténet” /Loan history/, as well, where you can check the list of your previously borrowed (and returned) documents for the last three years. Clicking “Adatok” /Data/, you can personalize the e-mail notification service. For example: you can request for the currently loaned documents list to be sent to you, or request advance notice about the due date of your membership(s) and loaned documents, too.
Further details about this and other online comfort services can be found in the Online use menu.

Book recommendation

If you would like to rate a document or would like to recommend it to others, you can do it by clicking on the link under the item data. All reviews will be displayed with the approval of a moderator. Guidelines concerning reviews can be found here.

Dear Visitor!
If you have any questions about the usage of the online catalogue, please turn to our librarians.
Any reviews or suggestions concerning the catalogue and our system are welcome via the e-mail address fszek@fszek.hu.