György Rózsa: Information: from claims to needs (Joint edition published by the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Kultura Hungarian Foreign Trading Company. Budapest, 1988)
II. International relations in the field of scientific information
99 1. The Growth Trend of International Organizations In international organizations the general phenomenon of specialization reflects, from the institutional standpoint both political considerations, and the specialization of science, technology, production and institutions. This is evident from a comparison of the League of Nations system with that of the United Nations. The relatively homogeneous institutional character of the League of Nations has developed into the multiplicity of bodies of the United Nations system (the United Nations and the specialized agencies). This transformation may be regarded as one of the most important consequences of the political, economic, social scientific development that has taken place since the Second World War, and exhibits a tendency towards internationalization which is also evident in the specialization of non-governmental organizations (NGO's) and in the multitude of regional intergovernmental organizations. A publication of the Union of International Associations, The 1,978 International Organizations founded since the Congress of Vienna, Chronological list, Brussels, 1957, lists the international organizations, associations, unions, etc. (intergovernmental and non-governmental) from the Congress of Vienna to 1957, all 1,978 of them. A statistical table giving the number of international associations founded in each five-year period shows that the greatest number were founded in the period 1950—1954, i.e. 319 NGO's and 33 intergovernmental organizations. There were 2,500 international organizations in existence in 1971. International co-operation, then, manifests itself through specialization both in institutions and in intellectual output: publications, specialized literature and documents. Only recently the Secretary-General of the United Nations affirmed that the Organization s most important working tools were documents. Thus the main medium for conveying information consists of documents. The world "information " is used here to mean all information and data which, in content and presentation, may help to improve and extend knowledge and the administrative, economic and scientific activities dealt with by international documentation services. As in science, a process of integration and synthesis is taking place which aims at generalizing the results of specialization. Integration of information therefore complements specialization and the two together form a unity in the division of labour. In the words of Mr. René Maheu, Director-General of UNESCO, in Science et Société, Paris 1967: "... Faced with the growing specialization of both thought and action through the diversification of research and the division of labour ... man ... is as likely to be choked by his knowledge as paralyzed by his ignorance."
