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

127 I could recall (for more background material) my original start as a diplomatist after the war, which ended with the Rajk trials, but really, much more readily, my contributions to the social sciences and to librarianship are the relevant ones. The milestones were these: research experience and publications, member- and Chairmanship of the International Committee for Social Science Documentation, information management with special emphasis on social sciences, my diploma in librarianship, my doctorate in economics and my work with national and international professional organs. These are not prerequisites towards becoming an international librarian but possible avenues leading up to it. Since the present approach is an essay and not a history, I would like to recall what the U.N. has meant to me. The U.N. from the cradle to the grave: shadows and illusions From the time of its very foundation failure was dogging the U.N's heels escorted by two companions: illusion and realism. The League of Nations had been terminated by the war — that is the shadow; the illusion is that the world has learnt a lesson and the U.N. will be able to make things better. The two sides of the coin Nearly half a century of U.N. - this means something. The League of Nations had lasted only one score of years and its membership was waning all the time. The U.N. still keeps growing — not of its own volition — and expresses the tendency of the strengthening of international links. The changes mark the end of colonial empires, the birth of developing countries and the growing strength of the socialist block. The U.N. is one of the main channels and catalysts of international cooperation today. The Secretariat is the U.N. s executive organ, but the U.N. is what its members wish it to be, its policies are in the hands of governments. The executive organ can hardly make significant modifications of policy. The U.N. fails or succeeds through its members, its criticism is self-criticism. The more concrete the more important is the work of its branches, e.g. prevention of international drug-trafficking, promotion of the welfare of refugees, regulation of East-West trade, detente, etc. Two points, inter alia: those who criticise the U.N. for its verbosity forget that all bureaucracies, national or international, operate with excessive documentation. Later on I shall discuss the second point which I call: anti-Coolidge effect. The illusion that had enveloped the U.N. at its early stages gave way to a loss of illusions. Neither was justified. Perhaps the U.N. is like oxigen: its presence is self-evident, its loss signals danger. The world would be a more dangerous place without it. Starting points and staying stages During an international meeting I visited the Library once in 1963. Then and there I met Breycha-Vauthier, a well known personality of the library world, who headed