István Monok is the Director General of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and President of the Book History Working Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is co-president of the International Association of Hungarian Studies. Previously he was appointed Director General of the National Széchényi Library in Budapest and served in this capacity between 1999 and 2009. During his directorship he promoted the international contacts and co-operations of the Library and the digitization of its holdings in the Hungarian Electronic Library. He was also involved in the creation of EUROPEANA as board member of The European Library and he is member of the advisory board of several major European libraries including the Vatican Library. Beside being a lecturer at Szeged University, EszterházyKároly University he taught as guest professor in Paris at the École pratiques des hautesétudes and the École nationale des chartres (Sorbonne), as well as at the universities of Bologna, Jyväskylä, Cluj-Napoca and Erlangen. Currently he is also the head of Comenius Institute Department of Cultural Heritage Studies at Tokaj University, leading the Speculum research group of the University and also the leader of the “From treasury to library: studies on the library and patronage of Palatin Pál Eszterházy” research group funded by the National Scientific Research Fund Programme.