1 Intergovernmental Conference on the Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures, Paris, September 23-27, 1974. The author participated in the conference as a member of the IFLA delegation.Google Scholar

2 The governments of 83 states had sent delegations to the conference, which was also attended by close to 50 expert observers from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.Google Scholar

3 The objectives for action deliberated by the conference are published infra p. 125.Google Scholar

4 See the bibliographical references infra p. 127 no. 1. Altogether 5 background papers had been directly prepared for the conference in addition to the main Working Document and a Summary containing the objectives.Google Scholar

5 The term “information” as used the conference has naturally been restricted to the kind of information conserved and made available by documentation centres, libraries and archives. It does not apply to the work of information ministries.Google Scholar

6 The figures are taken from Arntz, infra p. 127 no. 2.Google Scholar

7 The conference took the common responsibility of these three branches in the information field for granted. Accordingly documentallists, librarians and archivists were equally represented in the three working groups.Google Scholar

8 One example is the atomic energy sector, where each country has nominated a documentation center, to unite the national literature and to report it, in a highly standardized form, to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.Google Scholar

9 The Beirut Agreement of 1948 concerning the international circulation of visual and auditory materials is at present ratified by 48 states, the Florence Agreement of 1950 on the importation of educational, scientific and cultural material has been signed by 68 states.Google Scholar

10 The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the non-governmental organization in the field of standards.Google Scholar

11 UNISIST (World Science Information System), brought to life at the UNESCO Intergovernmental Conference in October 1971, seeks to organize the information in the field of science and technology.Google Scholar

12 International Information System on Research in Documentation.Google Scholar

13 The International Serials Data System has been launched in 1971 as part of the UNISIST program.Google Scholar

14 The parallel system of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) has proved to be highly efficient.Google Scholar

15 See Cronin, J.W., “The Library of Congress national program for acquisitions and cataloguing”, LIBRI, Vol. 16, No. 2, 1966, p. 115.Google Scholar

16 Cf. The Library of Congress, Public Law 480 Programs, October 1972.Google Scholar

17 This agency might also function as the National Serials Centre, see supra p. 119.Google Scholar

18 In COM (Computer-Output-Microfilm) the image of a whole page organized by computer program is micro-photographed in less than a 10th of a second.Google Scholar

19 Time sharing allows several users to be connected to a computer simultaneously through different terminals.Google Scholar

20 Machine-Readable Catalogue.Google Scholar

22 The documents have been brougth out by UNESCO – and nos. 6, 7 und 8 by IFLA, FID and CIA – for limited distribution only. As long as they have not been generally published they might be obtained by interlibrary loan from the depository libraries of UNESCO materials.Google Scholar

23 This is a minuscule selection of directly related publications, mostly from UNESCO, which are relatively little known in some quarters of the profession. Almost all of them and of the conference documents contain detailed bibliographical references.Google Scholar