1968
Report of a
Preliminary Investigation of the Possibility of Using
Computer Data Processing Methods for the UIA
- / -
Introduction
The UIA has been involved in detailed documentary work for the past 20 years.
This period has seen the improvement in techniques for handling information,
storing it and making it available in new forms for the benefit of a variety
of users. During this period the UIA has continued to perform its documentation
work in the traditional manual fashion, as accepted in libraries for the past
50 years.
This approach has led to increasing difficulties. The UIA is faced with the
problems of the 'information explosion' in the field of international organization,
just as other libraries and documentation centres have faced this problem in
the field of physics, medicine, agriculture, etc. Not only has the volume of
information increased, but the requirements of users have become more precise
and increasingly go beyond the feasibility of answering questions under the
present system of manual retrieval of information. In effect this means
that the UIA is becoming less competent to meet the demands placed upon it
by those requiring information on international organizations and related fields.
The information is there, but it involves too much time and effort to make
available to inquirers. Even in those cases where an inquirer is willing to
finance an extensive survey, the allocation of a member of staff to such a
task for a lengthy period is detrimental to other UIA activities from which
he is taken.
There is an unfortunate result of inability to supply the information demanded
in the field in which one has specialized, that is that other organizations
with more efficient methods of storing and handling data will be created to
fulfil such requirements. The UIA is therefore not in a position to quietly
ignore those demands placed upon it but must look to methods of making its
information processing more efficient in order to ensure its future development
over the next 10 - 20 years.
There is another aspect to the installation of modern techniques of data
handling. It is not sufficient to install the necessary equipment and hope
that its activities will not be detrimental to the overall functioning of the
organization. The equipment may perform perfectly, but if the information supplied
to it is inadequate, or the results it supplies are not useable, then the organization
will be even worse off. Furthermore,
if bottle-necks are created within the manual parts of the organization, due
to the speed of operation of the machine, then the speed of data handling will
remain the same. It is clear from these examples that the whole organization
must be studied in detail in order to determine exactly what functions it should
perform, what questions it should answer and in what proportion. This
is necessary to be able to evaluate any proposed new internal system of organization
in terms of the real objectives of the organization. If this is not done,
the organization may find itself doing, for example, one particular job of
relatively minor importance extremely well, whilst neglecting to develop the
other programs of the organization. This would create a complete imbalance
in the overall program to the disadvantage of the organization as a whole.
The UIA is aware of many of the possibilities of electronic data processing
as illustrated by its use in commercial firms. It is also aware of some of
the problems. There is, however, an almost complete lack of information on
the application of computer methods by international nonprofit organizations
with limited resources, particularly, as in the UIA's case, where the many
complex questions of the new science of information storage and retrieval are
concerned. This report is therefore designed to clarify the position and determine
to what extent it is possible for an organization with similar resources to
the UIA to employ computer methods to increase its efficiency.
The report first establishes the basic objectives of the UIA in order to
' enable the importance of each section of the information system to be assessed.
The information system is then analysed to determine how and where data moves
throughout the organization, both on the purely documentary side, and on the
management, administration, sales and distribution side. A description is then
given of computer systems which should be given further consideration once
the objectives of the organization have been clarified.
According to available information, no other international non-profit organization
has attempted to employ computer facilities. An important function of this
report is to demonstrate to what extent a number of relatively small organizations
can combine their data processing problems in order to make economic use of
computer facilities. One section of the report is devoted to this topic, particularly
with the intention of determining whether it would be feasible for the UIA
to group together with member organizations of the FAIB in order to make use
of a computer service bureau.
This point is considered both because of the possible cost advantage to the
UIA and because of the UIA interest in ensuring that the maximum portion of
funds, time and personnel is devoted to increasing the effectiveness of the
programs of these organizations. Mechanization could help to liberate some
of the resources currently employed on routine tasks to those which contribute
more directly to furthering the objectives of each organization.
Objectives
In order to be able to evaluate the elements of the current and planned information
systems within the UIA, it is extremely important to know very precisely what
the objectives of the organization are. It is not only the objectives in their
stated form in the constitution of the organization which must be known, but
also in their implicit form, as they work out into practice through the routine
decision making procedures of management. It is very frequently the case
that an organization assumes that it is accomplishing certain objectives when
in fact the balance of its programs indicate that its achievements lie in a
different area. The reason for this form of discrepancy is that the true objectives
of the organization are not stated in sufficiently precise or practical terms
so that they can be used as means for checking the validity of each policy
decision.
If an objective stated in the constitution is not used explicitly in each
management decision, then such objectives are too vague and general to be useful
in that case. In order to make the decision more concrete, objectives must
therefore be stated or assumed.
The stated objectives of the UIA are the following: 1. To promote the development
of internation co-operation with special emphasis on international relations
of a non-governmental character; 2. To assemble information on non-governmental
international organizations, their meetings, their publications and their other
activities; 3. To make such information available to all interested persons
and ensure its distribution; 4. To effect research and issue publications on
the common problems of international organizations; 5. To facilitate mutual
relations between the latter; 6. To promote the sudy and better understanding
of international organizations in schools and universities and by the general
public;
In fulfilling its objects the UIA proposes to contribute to the development
of international life and to efforts being made for peace."
These objectives pose no problem for decision making provided that the UIA
has sufficient resources to carry out all these self-imposed tasks. A major
difficulty arises once the UIA has to compromise between carrying out some
of these objectives, for which no financial support is available, and others
for which financial support is available. The organization then has to develop
criteria for deciding between its stated objectives, and, for a given objective,
between different programs which, contribute in different ways to the objective.
A given information system, particularly one based on a computer, assists in
the accomplishment of certain specific objectives. Extra features can be added
to it to accomplish further objectives. Each new feature added to achieve more,
increases the cost of setting up and operating the system.
Once the organization is forced to compromise between its stated objectives
and financially feasible objectives, the latter must be stated clearly to enable
a suitable information system to be designed. The need for such objectives
is explored in the general analysis of the UIA and its environment given in
Appendix I.
This analysis shows that the organization is faced with a number of problems,
including competition in its documentation speciality, control of operations,
personnel, sales and external relations. The conclusion is that the fundamental
reason for these problems is the lack of specific objectives by which the organization
can decide which programs to undertake. Because of this it cannot check whether
it has undertaken the correct programs and performed them efficiently and effectively.
There is no explicit statement indicating specifically which groups should
directly benefit by the UIA's activities and how.
If these groups include international organizations, no methods of measuring
the increasing utility of the UIA activities to these todies have been developed
(e.g. number of letters of appreciation or criticism per year; number of demands
for membership; number of contacts with the UIA initiated by such bodies; number
of queries from them per year; etc.). The UIA in fact competes directly for
financial resources with some of these bodies. Its value to them may in fact
be decreasing from year to year as the number of specialized documentation
centres increases.
If the groups which benefit by the UIA's activities are defined as "all
interested persons", no method of splitting the latter into groups to
analyse their respective contributions to the UIA's overall objective ("development
of internation life...peace") has been developed. The interest of some
of these groups in the documentation supplied may be of far less value (in
terms of defined "results" for a given measure of UIA "effort")
than that of others which the UIA should cultivate.
For the purpose of the following preliminary investigation into the feasibility
of making use of computer techniques, it has been assumed that the organization
merely wishes to perform its current data processing operations more efficiently.
No attempt has been made to produce more precise objectives. This will have
to be done, explicitly or implicitly, before the final computer systems are
designed. If in addition, consideration is given to the competitive
situation, certain documentary and research activities may need to be discarded.
For example, can the UIA afford to answer all incoming questions on organizations
and meetings and if not, which ones does it wish to discard or encourage. The
basis for the latter decision must be defined clearly before designing any
information retrieval system.
In addition, if the UIA does develop new detailed objectives, these may require
a form of information system which has not been considered here. An example
is the retrieval of information on national members of international organizations.
No detailed consideration has been given to such possibilities.
Existing UIA Information Systems
The processing of information within the UIA can be divided into four information systems:
- information for inclusion in regular publications
or documentation files
- retrieval of documentation information
- information related directly to the sale of publications
- exceptional items, or items of too small a volume
to warrant a special procedure.
The general flow of information through the UIA is illustrated by Exhibit
1.
Documentation System
The detailed flow of information leading to the production of regular publications
is illustrated in Exhibit
2 . The volume of information and the
ordering of the information in the documentation files is listed in Exhibit
3.
To aid understanding of the general procedure, an account is given of the
processing of data for the main types of publications. In Exhibit
4 and
4a the procedure by which the data for inclusion in the Yearbook of International Organizations is processed is itemized. In Exhibit
5 and 5a the
processing of bibliographical data is itemized. In Exhibit
6 and 6a calendar data is itemized.
All filing and processing of data is done using manual methods. Most of
the filing and processing retires experience of the nature and activities
of a variety of international and national organizations, together with
a basic knowledge of the rules of indexing. The work is done mainly in
English and therefore it is difficult to delegate occasional routine
tasks to the predominantly French speaking secretarial staff.
The main problems associated with the documentation system are: the
time
taken over repetitive tasks which cannot be delegated (e.g. filing and
restructuring indexes); omissions and errors in manipulation of entries;
duplication of files for different purposes (and the consequent problem
of having to check information on a particular point in several files);
the difficulty of organizing the procedure for questioning international
organizations on a regular basis (due to lack of sufficient secretarial
assistance and uncertainty about the adequacy of the addressograph plate
system); the progressive increase in the volume of information which
must
be handled each year (which means, since the personnel and space for publication cannot be increased, that the criteria for selecting information
must become progressively narrower to compensate for the increased volume).
In addition, because of the rapid personnel turnover and the two year production cycle of the Yearbook of International Organizations, procedures
have had to remain fluid from year to year.
The UIA produces its publications with an absolute minimum of editorial
and printing costs. Unless the documentation information system is integrated with the retrieval system, any proposed system must be judged solely
on a basis of comparative cost.
Retrieval System
There is no definite procedure for retrieving information which has been
recorded by the documentation system. Each case must be judged on its
merits to determine the most efficient means of obtaining the desired result. The types and volume of queries are listed in Exhibit
12.
The main problem with the retrieval system is that, as with the documentation system, it is necessary to allocate an experienced member of staff
to the repetitive task of locating the information. This means that the
person has to be taken away from other important tasks and therefore slows
down general productivity.
Retrieval is normally a very slow process since the questions asked relate to data which has not been published or has not been published in
the order in which it is desired. This means that a laborious manual
check or survey has to be conducted through card or other files. These
surveys generally involve a certain amount of judgment in deciding how
a given item of data should be recorded. Data in the card files is not
in an entirely consistent form. All published surveys must be done
manually which is time consuming and gives rise to errors because judgment is not consistent.
The problems with the retrieval system mean that although the amount of
information recorded is increasing, the capability of the UIA to reprocess
that information for specific queries or even general surveys is decreasing. The UIA cannot allocate staff to retrieval problems and is therefore not fulfilling its role of answering questions on the variety of
aspects of international relations which it has documented.
A mechanized solution to the retrieval of information is very difficult
to evaluate unless data on current or planned queries (the volume of queries,
how specific a question is to be answered, how quickly the answer must be
given, how easily the system can be modified to cope with new questions)
is available. A sophisticated system is an expensive waste if the volume
and nature of queries do not make complete use of it. (A current example,
known to the UIA, is the Food and Agriculture Organization storage and
retrieval system which only receives 20 queries per day.) The UIA must
balance the cost of the system against its return in pursuit of income
and its return in pursuit of the non-profit motive of making available
statistical data.
Sales and Distribution Information System
This system is primarily concerned with the processing of orders and payments for publications and with maintaining the address file by which both
international organizations, regular clients, magazine and other subscribers, and prospective clients, can be contacted.
The types of data handled by this system are so numerous, or rather
there are so many exceptions to simple oases, that only a summarized
form of the flow of information can be conveniently illustrated (see
Exhibit
7.).
To aid understanding of the general procedure, an itemized account is
given of the sales and distribution files in Exhibit
8. The complexity
of the address plate categories is illustrated by Exhibit
9. The procedures of the department are itemized in Exhibit
10. A summary of the
volumes of data stored and modified is given in Exhibit
11.
The main problems in this system are that: the information stored on
the past purchases of individual organizations or customers cannot be used
effectively to stimulate future sales; coordination of the addressograph
plate system with the data received on international organizations currently operates on a time-lag of six weeks for a change of address; it
is
very difficult to obtain sales statistics, especially by customer or publication group or for a given geographical area (which means that it is
difficult to follow the sales of a particular publication or the success
of a particular advertising campaign); the number of groups distinguished
on the addressograph plates is so great that it is difficult to detect
the nuances of colour on the indicators used (which leads to errors and
omissions in mailings); the complexity of making invoices and receiving
payments means that experienced personnel must be used for the most routine tasks.
Any mechanized solution to the above problems must be judged on the same
criteria as in a commercial organization. The proposed system must, aside
from routine operations, provide the maximum amount of information on
customers and their purchases of individual publications for a minimum
system set-up and operating cost. The balance between these two factors
can only be decided by evaluating particular solutions repeatedly until
a system is acceptable (for a discussion of the economics of information,
see Emery, J.C., M8).
Other Procedures/Systems
All other data is received by the UIA in such small quantities that
it is treated individually and does not require card file or other special
files to be kept. This includes the treatment of: social
security, income tax, creditors, personnel payment, etc. These procedures will not
be considered further.
Data Processing Equipment
The techniques and equipment available in the data processing field make
a detailed survey of any kind impossible within the context of this report. A summary of the most important items of equipment is given in
Exhibit
13. The discussion must, however, be biased in terms of the means
and needs of the UIA.
Much confusion is currently created by the many techniques reported in
the popular and technical press. These are often completely impractical
for certain classes of organization. In order to give an extremely general idea of the equipment in use in relation to classical and non—electronic
techniques, Exhibit
14 has been produced. This shows, for a given number
of data items (e.g. sales record, personnel record, customer record,
etc.),
and a given data 'activity' (e.g. number of calculations, number of records with which a given record must be correlated, frequency with which
a given record is requested, etc.), the types of equipment which could
be used. It must be emphasized that this Exhibit is extremely approximate and that each case has to be judged on its merits.
The approximate figures given for the monthly hiring cost of equipment
reflect the current position in Brussels. With the changes and advances
in the data processing field, particularly with the introduction of data
net, remote access and time-sharing systems in the next 5 years, many
of
these prices will be considerably reduced.
A brief note on planned future developments in the computer and information industry is given in Exhibit
15.
The most important point which emerges from these probabl future developments is the influence of national data networks' decentralization
and cheaper data processing on the UIA. International data networks
will favour the decentralization of information storage until a request
is made. This keeps the information where it is most likely to be required and where it is easiest to update. The crucial point for the
future of the UIA is whether a commercial organization will find it profitable to prepare an equivalent tut more comprehensive Yearbook in this
way, or whether such an international data network will still be dependent on a pre-centralization of information as performed by the UIA.
Another possibility is that the UIA should link itself into such an
international data network when it is created, and if it is financially
possible to do so. It is impossible to define satisfactorily the effect
which such a network will have, but it is clear that it will profoundly
effect the policies, finance and activities of small information centres.
Precedents in the Use of Computer Techniques by Non-Profit Organizations
No references could be found to the use of computers by international
nonprofit non-governmental organizations. A computer has been installed
by
at least two intergovernmental organizations, mainly to keep track of
document production in their fields. The two organizations are the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome (see FAO
and Euratom in Mons, Belgium. These organizations operate on a scale
which makes comparison relatively useless in examining the problems of
the UIA.
Three recent references were found to the use of computers by national
non-profit organizations. The U.S.A. AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department Data Center offers computer services to member unions. The computer
has been used for gathering and sorting information on labour contracts,
analysing companies and mergers to provide data for negotiations, as
well
asprocessing of membership and subscription lists. Individual unions
in the U.S.A. are also reported to be making independent use of computers,
including the communications workers, the united auto workers, the
letter carriers, railroad trainmen, carpenters, typographical workers.
For example, the U.S.A. national trade union called the International
Association of Machinists is reported to have installed a $ 1.5 million
computer in 1962 and has increasingly teen able to upgrade the effectiveness of its union operations by adapting the computer to more difficult
tasks. Prior to installation of the computer, union membership lists
were 18 months in arrears. With a total of 950,000 members and what
amounted to 100 per cent annual turnover, it was then impossible to maintain effective contact through the headquarters office. Currently,
80,000 monthly changes in membership are processed within two days of
receipt of the information, which enables the union to maintain contact
by issuing a weekly newsletter. (see Adams, Alan, Ml).
The article, although it demonstrates that computers have been used effectively for membership societies does not illustrate whether computer services could be adapted to the UIA scale of operations.
The second reference was to a U.S.A trade association called the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society. This organization with a membership
of
23,000, monthly journal mailing, subscription list maintenance, statistics
(training course attendance, insurance, etc.), reports that it decided
to
lease classical data processing equipment (tabulator, card punch, sorter,
collator). The decision was made to lease the equipment rather than
use a service bureau because although the actual cost of service bureau
operations was somewhat less than leasing, it was considered that
for long range requirements, the cost of increased use of the service
bureau would, then far outweigh the possible initial savings. A study
of personnel involved with the new system revealed that there would not be as much reduction using the service bureau as there would in using leased equipment. After one year of operation the conclusion is that the equipment does not necessarily reduce costs. The labour costs plus the
lease and operating costs are approximately equal to the former total
labour costs. (see Stafford, Willis, M15).
It is clear from the article that the system was well adapted to control
of a membership list. The system was not used for the processing required in the production of complex invoices, and its research uses were
limited to an annual census.
The third article in the same magazine reports on the use of computer
produced trend studies of industry changes as produced by trade associations. No details are given but it is stated that the cost of com.
puter-oriented trend programs is generally within reach of national associations, or most larger state and local groups. The author of the article is the director of a firm which designs and manages computerized
information systems and programs exclusively for non-profit trade associations. (see Tyson, Charles, M16).
In London, the Institution of Electrical Engineers is planning a 1968
conference with the aid of computer techniques. Questionnaires on conference subject preferences have been analyzed to determine the most
effective way of balancing the program.
These examples are only given to indicate that some non-profit organizations have made use of computer techniques. Whether an organization
is profit or non-profit makes no difference in the design of a computer
based information system. The purpose to which a given collection
of data is to be put does not affect the techniques by which the arrangement should be prepared. The UIA can therefore make use of the multitude of techniques developed by computer manufacturers for commercial
organizations and their data processing problems.
Use of Data Processing Equipment by the UIA
The UIA currently employ manual methods of data processing for everything
except addressing envelopes, and the addressograph machine is operated
manually.
The problem which the organization faces is to ensure that the efficiency
of each of the information systems is increased without the need for increased operating costs or a substantial investment of funds. This definition of the problem rules out a number of intermediate alternatives.
Orders and mailings could be handed over to an organization which specializes in such procedures. This could not be approved because the UIA
hopes at some stage to develop its administrative services to handle precisely this form of activity for other international organizations. In
addition, the current low cost of this service to the UIA, together with
the commercial profit required by the outside service organization, make
it improbable that this course would lead to a more efficient service,
plus increased sales information, for the same cost.
A second possibility is that the UIA should hire the necessary equipment
to increase the efficiency of the routine operations, e.g. accounting
machines, electrical addressograph, punched card equipment, etc. This
course has not been considered, since the UIA could not make full use
of the equipment. Without a complete and expensive compatible collection
of units, the current data processing complexity could not be handled
without creating manual bottle—necks.
A third possibility is that the organization should take on extra personnel and improve the conventional manual systems. This course would
require a complete change in the personnel policy and on the basis of
the
past history of personnel relations is not certain to lead to a satisfactory solution, despite the increase in costs.
A fourth possibility is that a remote access computer terminal should
be
installed to link up to a computer service bureau. This is currently
quite
impractical, since such terminals are only economical when used for short
periods on complex calculations.
This analysis has therefore been restricted to the possibility of using
either classical equipment, a card computer, or a third generation computer. In each case these have only been considered under the service
bureau
system of operation. A note on the use of service bureaus
is given in Exhibit
16.
Possible Combinations of Suitable Computer Systems
Each information system raises a different type of data processing
problem. The most fundamental distinction is between the processing needed
to produce the regular publications and the processing required during
the normal commercial treatment of orders and subscriptions. The only
common element between these two forms of processing is the collection
of addresses of international organizations. This has to be kept up to
date in both systems.
The production of the regular publications using computer typesetting
techniques seems to be the only method of radically improving documentation efficiency. This is discussed below. The commercial problems
are
similar to those met by commercial organizations. Most of these problems
have standard solutions. The definition and solution of these problems
are discussed below.
The use of computer techniques to solve the publication production problem is closely related to the use of the stored data for research and
retrieval of information for special studies.
Each of these problems could be treated separately or all UIA data could
be handled by one integrated system. This question will be discussed
further when solutions to the preliminary data processing problems in
each section have been discussed.
A further complicating feature, or possibility, is that since the problems of handling orders, subscriptions, membership lists, mailing lists,
etc. are common to many international non-profit organizations like the
UIA, it might be possible to group this section of the work with that of
other organizations. This would probably mean a complete split from the
documentation work. This question is further discussed below.
Once the UIA can handle its mailing activities without undue strain on
the organization, it is possible that computer techniques could be used
to develop several new markets which could considerably
increase the UIA income. One of these is the organization of international
congresses
(handling registrations, distribution of literature, reports, etc.).
The other is the processing of orders for international meeting reports,
to which the UIA is currently unable to devote any attention. These
questions will not be discussed in detail.
The above data processing problem areas have been summarized in Exhibit 17. The following sections deal with each problem in detail.
To clarify the variety of possibilities requiring consideration, Exhibit
18 has been produced. This shows how the UIA can combine its publication
production with research, treatment of semi-commercial problems, or in
cooperation with other organizations, or any grouping of these four.
Preliminary Examination of Computer Systems
The last section indicated the many possible systems which need to be considered.
In this section each one of the possible combinations is examir.ed in order to
determine those which warrant further investigation. No attempt is made here
to decide between classical data processing systems and sophisticated computer
systems.
The UIA can choose to employ a system entirely for its own data processing,
or it can decide to develop a system to be used by other organizations in a
'pool'. The member organizations of the FAIB would be the most obvious suitable
candidates. This section is therefore divided into two parts. In the first
part the UIA-only systems are discussed. In the second, the UIA-FAIB systems
are discussed. There is some overlap between the two parts but this
is made clear within the text. The numbering of the systems discussed corresponds
to that used in Exhibit
18.
A. UIA-only Systems Production of Publications (separate
document)
B UIA-FAIB System (separate
document)
In order to reduce costs and to stimulate the use of modern techniques
in other non-governmental organizations, it is possible to combine UIA
data processing with that of other organizations with similar problems.
C Other Organizations without UIA
In terms of the UIA's non-profit aims and its membership of the FAIB,
•it would be useful to encourage other organizations to pool together
into groups with common data processing problems. Commercial organizations
with similar problems have given rise to standard programs for the solution
of these problems. Similar programs would reduce the initial cost
to a non-profit organization wishing to make use of a service bureau.
If a UIA semi-commercial processing system is implemented, it might be
possible to sell the program to other organizations or groups of organizations.
A single program which dealt economically with all the membership, invoicing
and accounting problems of a small organization (perhaps with slight modifications)
could have a useful market. The market could easily extend to the national
member organizations of international organizations. If the program
could be adapted to the problems of a group of even smaller organizations,
this would not only extend the market for the program to local organizations,
but serve as a valuable inducement to small organizations to collaborate. Collaboration
in the resolution of technical administrative problems would clarify the
very important distinction between differences in objectives between organizations
and the similarity of the routine problems encountered in accomplishing
objectives.
Detailed Examination of Most Appropriate
Computer Systems (separate
document)
Recommendations and Conclusions
From the technical point of view there is no difficulty in introducing
any of the suggested systems. It is obvious that the more complex the system
becomes, and the more an attempt is made to integrate the Yearbook of International
Organizations text preparation, Calendar preparation, Bibliography preparation,
and research, the more non-standard and costly the initial set-up would
be.
The main argument against introducing a complex system, is that the future
of the bibliography has not yet been decided. In addition, the increasing
competition in the production of calendars may mean that the UIA will have
to change its program in this area, either by including a broader selection
of meetings, coming to some arrangement with the competitors, or suppressing
the calendar. Once a complex system is introduced, such changes are
difficult and costly to make. A second argument against the complex system
is that the monthly volume of data to be processed appears to be uneconomical.
The most fruitful areas for further investigation are separate systems
for the Yearbook typesetting, research and the semi-commercial procedures.
This allows for greater flexibility and many of the computer programs involved
are nearly standard, which is an important cost factor. Each program is
then designed for maximum efficiency rather than with compromises to
ensure integration of the system. The different programs, which are required
at different periods, can then be run when sufficient information is available.
Before continuing with the investigation, it is essential that further
thought be given to defining the precise objectives the UIA wishes to achieve
by instituting any of these systems. This is necessary in order to determine
the relative weight to be given to each question or information retrieval
facility in the Yearbook, semi-commercial and particularly, the research
program.
On the basis of current activity computer typesetting will not introduce
important savings unless the UIA intends to produce many specialised Yearbooks.
The semi-commercial processing could probably be performed satisfactorily
by an improved manual system. This possibility should be covered during
the course of any further investigation. Once the research problems have
been defined,
a deck of punched cards on the Yearbook organization can be maintained
up to date. These could be used whenever necessary to survey particular
combinations of characteristics of international organizations.
Main Report Bibliography
Ml ADAMS, Alan. Computers serving you. "Free Labour World" (international
Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Brussels), October 1967, p. 12-15
M2 AVRAM, H.D. MARC is a four-letter word; a report on the
first year
and a "Library Journal", vol. 93, no. 13, July 1968, p. 2601-2605
M3 COX, N.S.M. and GROSE, M.W. (Eds.) Organization and handling of
bibliographic records by computer (Proceedings based on the seminar
held at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, July 1967). Newcastle
upon Tyne, Oriel Press, 1967, 208 p.
M4 HAMMERS, H.F. Integrated information processing and the
care for a
national network "Information Storage and Retrieval", vol. 4,
no. 2,
June 1968, p. 113-131
M5. DIEBOLD, J. What's ahead in information technology. "Harvard
Business
Review", September-October 1965; In: Management Information
Series
(Reprints)
M6 DONALD, A.G. Management and information systems. London, Pergamon
Press, 1967, 169 p.
M7 FIOCK, Jr., L.H. Seven deadly dangers in electronic data processing.
"Harvard Business Review", May-June 1962. In: Management Information
Series (Reprints)
M8 EMERY, J.C. "Economics of information". In:
Systems and Procedures,
Cleveland, 1967, p. 158-167
M9 JANDA, K. Data processing; applications to political
research.
Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1965, 288 p.
M10 LEVY, F. Economie générale d'une chaine documentaire mécanisée.
"Bulletin de l'Unesco pour Bibliothécaires", vol. 21, no.
5,
Sept.-Oct. 1967, p. 254-263
M11 LICKLIDER, J.C.R. Libraries of the future. Cambridge, Mass.,
M.I.T. Press 1965, 219 P.
M12 MEADOW, C.T. The analysis of information systems; a programmer's
introduction to information retrieval. London, Wiley, 1967, 301
p.
M13 POMEROY, R.W. Flow charting. In: Ideas for Management;
papers and
case histories presented at the 1967 International Systems Meeting.
Cleveland, Systems and Procedures Association, 1967, p. 17-24
M14 RUBINOFF, Morris (Ed.) Toward a national information system. London,
Macmillan, 1965, 242 p.
M15 STAFFORD, W. Case study: computerizing an individual membership
society. "Association Management" (Washington), June 1968,
p. 20-27 + ;
M16 TYSON, C. Trend studies for associations...."Association Management"
(Washington), June 1968, p. 48-50
M17 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA STANDARDS INSTITUTE. U.S.A. Standard Code
for
Information Interchange X 3.4-1967. New York, USASI, 1967.
M18 van der WOLK, L.J. Télétype et code télex a l'usage
des biblio-
théques. "Bulletin de l'Unesco pour Bibliothécaires",
vol. 20,
no. 4, July-August 1966, p. 184-191
M19 van DIJK, M. Enregistrement et recherche de l'information docu-
mentaire; méthodes, moyens, couts; guide pour le choix
d'un
équipment. Bruxelles, Presses Universitaires de Bruxelles, 1964,
164 p.
M20 WHEELER, P. Planning tomorrow's computer grid. "New
Scientist",
(London), vol. 39, no. 607, July 25 1968, p. 173-4
|
