Challenges to Comprehension Implied by the Logo of Laetus in Praesens
Laetus in Praesens
28th March 1974

International Organization Information / Research: 1974

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Prepared for Union of International Associations (General Assembly, Paris, 28th March 1974)
See also searchable PDF version (original titles, sub-headings, order and typography); also reports 1959-2006
Document also in segmented format in the Kairos indexed database

Organization profiles / networks

Yearbook of International Organizations (14th edition, 1972-73): This first edition to be produced by computer is now out of print.

Yearbook of International Organizations (15th edition, 1974): This second edition to be produced by computsr will be off the press at the end of April 1974. A sutisfactory number of orders for this English edition have already been received. The 15th edition is four months late due to difficulties in switching part of the work to BrussGls (as axplained below) and relating the English edition to the Franch edition.

Annuaire des Organisations Internationales (15th edition, 1974): Following financial support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Canadian Government and the Agence de Niamey, a French translation of the Yearbook of International Organizations will be published at the same time as the English edition. (The last French edition was the 8th, 1960-1961, edition). Full advantage has been taken of the computer system and general organization of the English edition. The number of orders received to date is quite satisfactory.

Bibliographies: meeting reports / periodicals / studies

Yearbook of Internationel Congress Proceedings (1962-1969, 2nd edition): This was published in October 1970. 75% of the volumes have been sold and it continues to sell slawly. Numerous orders for the 3rd edition have been received. It is hoped to produce this by the computor system. Material is available to start work on a 3rd edition incorporating material for this publication into magnetic tape. This will be done as soon as all computer difficulties have been ovarcome and the work load for other publications permits.

Bibliographies of Proceedings of International Meetings (held in 1957, 1958 and 1959): sales have almost ceased.

Directory of Periodicals published by International Organizations / Répertoire des Périodiques des Organisations Internationales (3rd edition): This publication off the press in October 1969 continues to sell slowly. A new edition is not yet justified, although 85% of the stock has now been sold. It is possible that the 4th edition should be combined with the Proceedings volume.

World problems / Strategic potential

Yearbook of World Problems and Human Potential (1st or preliminary edition; subsequent editions entitled Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential) Work is far advanced on the production of this joint publication with Mankind 2000 and the Center for Integrative Studies. It is expected that entries will be incorporated into magnetic tape via the modified computer system during the summer of 1974. In view of tho nature of the publication and the general uncertainties noted above, a choice will be made between several possible modes of initial publication:

In agreement with Mankind 2000 which has supplied all editorial funding to date, it is intended that a full version of the publication should be available for presentation at the Social Transmutation Conference to be held under the auspices of Mankind 2000 in June 1975.

Biographical profiles of leadership

Whos Who in International Organizations: Following initial efforts in this direction, in the form of special indexing in the Yearbook of International Organizations up to the 12th edition, no further action has been taken.

Material which could be included in such a publication could best be collected for selected mini-diroctories and only later brought together in a combined volume.

Meetings scheduled / Conference organization / Associate Membership

International Congress Calendar (annual): The Calendar has been produced for the second time (January 1974) in its new expanded format separate from International Associations (the monthly supplements continue to be included there however).

Tho Calendar now has a complete geographical sequence of meetings as well as the usual chronological sequence. (One advantdge is to provide positions in ths Calendar attractive to advertisers interested in particular cities or countries.) Organization and subject indexes complete the volume. Sales of this volume and that of the previous year havo been good, Thie publication has not reduced sales of International Associations.

International Congress Science Series. Sales of these volumes continue to be relatively slow and unsatisfactory, particularly those resulting from the international congress on congress organization. The most recent proceadings of tho Barcelona congress are no exception. There continues, however, to ba a regular demand for the various congress organization manuals. New approaches to selling these publications are required, possibly by automatic mailing, to organizers of meetihgs newly-announced each month.

Associations review / journal

International Associations: The UAI periodical is now in its third year in the improved format. Much greater effort has been made to obtain articles. Sales continue to remain at the same level although the expected loss of some subscriptions because the annual International Congress Calendar is no longer incorporated has not proved significant. The new format is proving very attractive to advertisers.

International Associations continues to be distributed free to non-subscribing international organizations. The computer-based mailing system facilitates distribution of alternative issues to organizations in different countrias on a rotation basis.

[NB: Versions of the UIA periodical: La Vie Internationale, 1912-21; Bulletin des associations internationals, 1943-44; Bulletin mensuel, 1951-53; International Associations, 1954-76; Transnational Associations, 1977-2001]

Research / Statistics

Documents for the Study of International Non Governmental Organizations. A new volume in six language editions (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish) has been added to this series as a result of the assistance of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The volume, entitled "The Open Society of the Future", constitutes the report of the UIA's seminar in Milan in 1972.

Mimeographed Study Papers. Further documents in this series havo been produced and distributed. These continue to have an indirect public relations advantage for the UAI which encourages further interest in the saleable publications.

Other publications continue to sell slowly. The new supplement to Initialese has revitalized sales for this publication.

Project proposals

Mini-directories. It is possible to use tho computer system to extract sections of the different yearbooks currently held on magnetic tape in order to form mini-directories by country of organization HQ, subject, organization type, country of membership, etc. An organization section could be combined with the corresponding problems. Other material could be added.

It is hoped that a wide variety of mini-directories can be produced in coll8boration with other international organizations. This will help to make greater use of thr information and will hGlp to improve the quality of tho information.

International Organization Membership (subsequently published as International Organization Participation; supplement to the Yearbook of International Organizations. The investrnent in the computer programme to analyze membership of international organizations creates an interesting possibility. The computer tape could be processed each year to produce a special supplement to the Yearbook. This would contain by continent and country the names of all international organizations with some sort of membership or representation from that country. In effect it would be a list for the country of organizotion names grouped by major subject (Yearbook chapters). Following oach name would be placed some information summarizing the geographical importance of the organization (ox. number of countries represented by continent; number of consultative relationship 11 points 11 , if any).

Such a publication would be very useful to national government bodies trying to work out the manner in which their country was represented intornationally. The publication could be produced via the computer system. It would of course cross-reference Yearbook organizations.

Future editions of Yearbook: The sales of the English and French 15th edition will be observed carefully to determine the timing and the nature of the publication to bo produced for 1975. Several external factors are liable to influence strongly the sales of publications like the Yearbook. As for the English edition, a final decision on the nature of the 16th edition in French will have to be postponed as late as possible. Corresponding alternatives exist however.

These include:

Possible altarnatives which could be considered, given the existence of the computer system are :

Yearbook of Multinational Enterprises: The UIA has already looked into this possibility which remains attractive. It requires relatively little investment in research since most of the information is already available in material accessible to ths UIA. The Gxisting computer system would be quite suitable for this publication.

Computer-related infrastructure

Indexing: Investment has been made in a computer sorting programme which facilitatDs considerably the editorial work of tho indexes, particularly the checking operation. This also permits expansion of some of the indexos in different ways, some of which will only be exploited for later editions.

Page make-up: Investment has been made in a programme to make-up full pages of index film. This avoids manual work and considerably speeds operations.

UIA keyboarding. Investment has been made in programming with a Brussels computer service bureau to pormit all keyboarding and proofing operations to be done in Brussels. This should further speed up operations. Keyboarding is now performed in the UIA offices on a mini-computer which has been purchased. This machine will be used for:

Considerable delays have been incurred because of difficulties at the computer service bureaux in Brussels. These have been overcome but in a manner which obliges tho UIA to switch to another service bureau for further operations since the first has switched to an unsuitable computer following takeover of its parent corporation. The opportunity of this switch will be used to eliminate remaining difficulties with thG system, and to adapt it to permit the production of a variety of mini-directories.

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