AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1963-1964. Budapest (1966)

I. A könyvtár életéből - Gombocz István: Unesco egyezmények a nemzetközi kiadványcsere szabályozására - The new Unesco Conventions concerning the international exchange of publications

limited. The 1886 Conventions omitted to deal with transport and customs facilities and became in the course of time obsolate. The regional Latin-American exchange conventions of 1902 (Mexico) and 1936 (BuenosAires) showed some new achievements, enlarged the scope of exchanges and became in some respect similar to present day cultural agreements. Preparatory-work of the new Unesco conventions Being obliged by its Constitution Unesco took up the initiative of sponsoring the exchange of publications from the very beginning of its existence. The network of numerous bilateral conventions batween States created a rather confused situation all over the world and wishes to establish a common basis for all these agreements were raised as early as 1948. The 8th General Conference in 1954 gave at last the necessary start. Appointed by the Director-General, Mr. Schmidt-Phiseldeck, Director of the Exchange Centre in Danemark prepared an excellent report on the general principles concerning exchanges and the possible forms of multilateral conventions. This report was discussed by the first expert meeting in 1956 which accepted the idea of a multilateral convention and outlined its main contents. Unesco thus prepared the first drafts, one for the official publications and an other for publications in general and submitted the texts to the Member States. Differing opinions were confronted on the second expert meeting in Brussels in 1958 where states like France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland supported the idea of a stronger convention, stipulating closer obligations and giving to the exchange centre more power and authority, while others as the United Kingdom, the members of the Commonwealth, Sweden, Germany etc. inclined to looser wording. After many modifications and alterations the expert meeting accepted two new texts and submitted them to the 10th General Conference of Unesco which adopted the conventions. By the end of 1963 about 16 countries ratified the new conventions, among them the United Kingdom, the Soviet-Union, France, Italy, Spain, the United Arab Republic^ Convention concerning the International Exchange of Publications As a result of the differing opinions the States merely undertook to encourage and facilitate the exchanges, stricter obligations could not be stipulated. The scope of the exchanges covers nearly all types of publications except audio-visual materials and confidential documents. Thus the vague terms of the Brussels conventions have been made more precise, even commercially published books might be subject to exchanges. The central exchange offices should deal with the transmitting of materials, but in addition to their duties of the Brussels conventions they should supply advice and information on exchange possibilities and should encourage the exchange of surplus materials. As a result of the protest of different countries, the function of coordination was put into the introductory words of the relevant paragraphe. Some States did not like the idea of national exchange centres at all, therefore the paragraph of the exchange services leaves them free whether they centralize the enumerated exchange work or not. Thus this paragraph is addressed mainly to countries which intend to enlarge the functions of their centers or which will establish such authorities only in the future. The Convention does not mention the centers' own exchanges, they are also free in this respect. The obligation of exchange partners to give regular reports on their exchanges to the center was also omitted, in spite of Schmidt-Phiseldecks suggestions. This is regrettable, because the centres will 1hus hardly be able to give annual reports of the total exchanges of their countries to Unesco. Because of the still divid ed opinions about the direct or indirect transmitting of exchange materials, the new Convention leaves partners free whether they use the services of the centre or not, which is an essential change to the Brussels system. Convention concerning the Exchange of Official Publications and Govemmen i Documents between States Instead of the obligatory exchanges of official publications stipulated in the Brussels convention the broader formula was accepted after a long discussion: The States ,.express 53