Challenges to Comprehension Implied by the Logo of Laetus in Praesens
Laetus in Praesens
26th May 1975

International Organization Information / Research: 1975

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Prepared for Union of International Associations (Executive Council, Brussels, 26th May 1975)
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 (15th edition,1974). The second edition to be produced by computer is now almost out of print. The sales have not been seriously affected by the parallel publication of the French edition for the first time, although the precaution had been taken to print somewhat fewer copies of the English edition to compensate for the expected switch by some purchasers to the French 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 tho 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.

Future editions: In view of the fact that the 15th edition is now almost out of print, it is necessary to undertake editorial work in the near future with a view to early publication. The concerns with regard to the selection of publication date are:

Possible alternatives which could be considered are:

The remarks for the English edition also apply here, providing the principle of parallelism is maintained for production of the two editions.

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.

In effects steps are being taken towards this publication within the framework of the the Yearbook of World Problems in which there is a specialized section which lists names, addresses and subsidiary countries for some 600 such bodies. This section may later be developed into a full directory.

Bibliographies: meeting reports / periodicals / studies

Yearbook of Internationel Congress Proceedings: (1962-1969, 2nd edition): This was published in October 1970 and is practically out of print. 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.

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 boen taken. Material which could be included in such 8 publication could best be collected for selected mini-diroctories and only later brought together in a combined volume.

This effort has been temporarily allocated a much lower priority pending the publication of a rather comprehensive Whos Who in the United Nations by a commercial publisher.

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.

Work in this publication is now in its final phases and efforts are being made to have the publication available for September 1975. It will be of comparable size to the existing Yearbook (a general description is given separately).

The editorial work on this publication has been entirely funded by Mankind 2000, co-publisher of this volume, and substantial private loans. These loans will have to be repaid from the revenue from initial sales during the courde of 1976. Some non-printing costs of publication are bein borne by the UIA. The actual osts of printing this publication are being financed through a new contract negotiated with a printer, as described below. This means that there is no immediate financial outlay for the actual publication of this volume.

After coniderable discussion and advice from our distributors in the USA (the main market for this publication), it was decided to price this relatively specialized publication much higher than usual for UIA publications, namely at $80.00 for institutions, whilst reserving the possibility of selling the publication at a much lower price (e.g. $20.00) to non-institutional buyers (e.g. individuals, nonprofit groups, organizations in developing countries). The main reason for the high price are:

Bibliographies: meeting reports / periodicals / studies

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

Yearbook of International Congress Proceedings (3rd edition): It is hoped that this can be produced by computer as soon as possible to meet the demands for this bibliographical tool.

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 a restructured Proceedings volume.

Meetings scheduled / Conference organization / Associate Membership

International Congress Calendar (annual): The Calendar has been produced for the third time (January 1975) in its new expanded format separate from International Associations (the monthly supplements continue to be included there however).

Tho Calendar now has a complete goographical 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,

Although only 30% of the print order has been sold, this level of sales very satisfactorily covers the cost of production. It is hoped that a suitable occasion may be found to distribute unsold copies to the international organizations whose meetings are listed in the Calendar as means of encouraging such organizations in their efforts to send new information for future editions.

This publication has not reduced sales of International Associations.

International Congress Science Series. Sales of these volumes are now very slows. The last edition in the series was published in 1970. It may well be useful to reduce the stocks completely by some form of special offer before such publications become completely unusable.

Associations 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 have increased slighlty and the expected loss of some subscriptions because the annual International Congress Calendar is no longer incorported has not proved significant. The new format is proving very attractive to advertisers. A number of special issues have been negotiated: Ivory Coast, Japan, Paris.

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. The last volume in six language editions (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian and Spanish) 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.

Future development strategy / Proposals / Fund-raising

As described in some detail in the previous publication report (March 1974), the UlA is now in a position to produce many kinds of publication by making imaginative use of the computer system. Examples cited were :

Mini-directories. It is possible to use the computer system to extract sections of the different yearbooks currently held on magnetic tape, possibly combined with portions of other yearbooks in order to form mini-directories. This can be done by subject area, by country of organization HQ, or by any other means of selection. So that, for example, the organizations in a particular subject area could be combined with problem descriptions associated with that area. Development of this possibility awaits stabilization of our work on the existing Yearbooks.

It is hoped that a wide variety of mini-directories can be produced in collaboration 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 (as a supplement to the Yearbook of International Organizations): This would constitute a membership index to the main Yearbook. The investrnent in the computer programme to analyze membership of international organizations creates an interesting possibility. Codification has been done for this, but agin development of this possibility awaits stabilization of our work on the existing Yearbooks.

Computer-related infrastructure

The procedure used to prepare the two Yearbook publications consisted of:

Considerable delays were incurred because of difficulties at the computer service bureau in Brussles (CITAF). This led to:

As described in the previous publication report (March 1974), these difficulties have been overcome in preparation for fututure publications, but in a manner which obliges the UIA to switch to another service bureau for further operations. The opportunity of this transfer has been used to eliminate remaining difficulties with the system, and o adapt it to permit the production of a variety of other publications.

The new provisions are briefly described with respect to future publications.

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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