Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)

KÖNYVTÁR ÉS KORSZERŰSÉG – LIBRARY AND MODERNITY

Social science research and information needs hypothetical links will continue. The same conditions for success of the earlier phases have to be fulfilled. Exchange of information about theoretical approaches, the semantic meaning of terms and the criteria used in the classification of societal phenomena etc. is a conditio sine qua non for international social science cooperative and comparative research. Researchers should, however, be aware of the fact that information is practically always a partial representation of reality produced in certain social contexts and in certain periods and not without subjective meaning. The success of international social science cooperative and comparative research evidently depends not just on the exchange of information per se but also on good will and empathy, on the willingness and the capacity to enter other people's mind and feelings as well. Empathy as a basic research attitude is a precondition for the significant exchange of social science information and for the constructive role the social sciences should play in shaping a new continent. It places the social sciences in the humanistic tradition in which the man for whom this book is written, has always felt himself at home. A European organisation for the advancement of social science research and documentation The social sciences and the responsible application of their findings in decision making require intercultural cooperative and comparative research. Taking the recent changes in our continent into consideration such research should be stimulated on a pan-European scale. We have seen that different kinds of information are needed for exchange in the preparatory and design phases of international cooperative and comparative research and during the phase in which a research project is carried out. For both intertwined activities, research and information exchange, infrastructural facilities of a European orientation are indispensable. And in the past several facilities or organisations supporting research and information exchange have been established by or under auspices of the European Community, the European Science Foundation and UNESCO. Among these organisations the European Coordination Centre for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences, the so-called Vienna Centre, stands out as an organisation addressing both activities and facing immediate consequences of the recent revolutionary changes in Central, Eastern and Western Europe. It is, moreover, an organisation in which Dr. Rózsa has been actively and constructively involved Gondolatok a könyvtárban " 177