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)
III. „The elephant’s head” and integrated information infrastructure for developing countries
157 (e) By language: - monolingual - multilingual; (f) By method of processing: — traditional (manual) - EDP-based; (g) By organizational factor: — international organization (e.g. UNESCO/DARE) - national organization (e.g. DEVSIS, Canada) Information systems form a kind of "inventory management" of accumulated knowledge — to use Pierre Piganiol's expression. 2 1 "Such management requires a permanent inventory, followed by a classification which will never be definitive: knowledge must be regularly reclassified as new links are discovered between the various fields of science and technology." (p. 33, op.cit.). What holds true for classification, i.e. that it "will never be definitive ", is also true for the categorization of information systems. With the change in their content (input), their dissemination of information (output), in the method of processing, etc., the categoiy they are actually belonging to may also change. Therefore, the typology of information systems - like the systems themselves is dynamic rather than static in character. The role of the UNISIST programme and other systems As has been stated above, UNISIST is a philosophy, a programme and policy for the co-operation of information systems on a world-wide scale. UNISIST is a successful attempt at bringing about ц real and voluntary international co-operation, embracing the whole field of information activity, and — for the time being - it is the information-programme within the United Nations system which can serve as a catalyst for and a tool of an integrated policy. Within its activity, supervised by a Steering Committee efforts of the UNISIST are concentrated on five directions as follows: improving the tools of interconnexion between the individual systems; improving information transfer; breeding a specialized information manpower; developing science information policy and national networks; special assistance to developing countries. Within this framework, UNISIST publishes guidelines, organizes training courses and seminars, etc. UNISIST has incorporated the formerly UNESCO/NATIS System. For current information on UNISIST activities see the UNISIST Newsletter published by the PGI/UNESCO. Despite all this, UNISIST does not act as, and cannot replace an over-all United Nations information policy, but serves as a catalytic "master programme" and a normative "umbrella" for information systems; it can be a bridge, and intercommunication among systems within and without the United Nations. It is a powerful means of co-ordination in a United Nations information policy. It appears from the typology of the United Nations information system that all the major fields of socio-economic activities are supplied with information by the established systems and services.
