Rózsa, George: Some Considerations of the Role of Scientific Libraries in the Age of Scientific and Technical Revolution. An Essay and Approach to the Problem (A MTAK kiadványai 50. Budapest, 1970)
11 can also be taken in a narrow sense which, feasibly —, does not permit the arbitrary inclusion of the former categories in it. From the aspect of documentation, these "non-traditional" documents (research reports, prospectuses, standards, etc.) belong to the sphere of special literature information or rather to the still wider sphere of economic and technical information. The double feature applies not only to special literature: information, necessary to society, also has at least two features. First it appears as information explored and transmitted to be applied to a certain task ("direct missionoriented information"), then it may also appear as information serving current awareness and general orientation ("indirect mission oriented information"). It seems feasible to treat information, which lends itself for use in production, economic or technological activities, as a product of special services and as something representing economic value, emerging from and serving the purposes of the process of reproduction on an increasing scale. In other words, criteria for this examination should be formulated in terms of economic categories according to this process: production —»- distribution (circulation) -> consumption This study tends to approach the problems of information from the "consumption" or utilization side of special literature information in contrast with the more customary „production" side, implying a quantitative contemplation of the subject. What the "production" quantitative contemplation of special literature information, a practice which has been predominant up to now, implies, is that the stress is placed on the production of secondary information, that is, the products of documentation play the leading role. From this it emerges that the system of special literature information may well be compared with a railroad without a time-table along the lines of which the trains are loaded at stations (products of documentation) and the traffic manager's only concern is to let the trains start out from his station; after the train's departure he does not mind any longer what will happen to it; whether it will "collide" with other trains; what other "parallel" freight is under way; whether or not it will safely reach its destination; where it will be unloaded? Thus, once the train has left, he just does not care about it. It is, therefore, essential to shift the stress onto the "consumption" , onto the use of information, and starting out from this, to define its production and distribution, too : The socially necessary special literature information production of secondary information (with a reasonable division of labour) ->- distribution (circulation, according to needs). III. A HYPOTHETICAL MULTI-CHANNEL MODEL OF THE FLOW OF INFORMATION CARRIED BY SPECIAL LITERATURE Documentation does not exist by itself; it is always the documentation of something (a branch of science, a profession, art, etc.); documentation has to start out from the actual needs of these things — even if the individual sectors are not always able to formulate their needs. These needs may be latent or potential, and it is precisely one of the most important tasks of special
