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)

I. The socio-professional aspects of the development of the scientific information with special regard to social sciences

THE "WINNIE THE POOH DOUBLE-EFFECT "* Pooh complains that whereas the entries are wide the exits are narrow. He has to lose weight to get out. Unless primary literature 'loses weight"we cannot successfully block the information tide. Introductory remarks The author's method and present treatment of his topic had caused a considerable controversy. The debate has not ended and the author has not finalised his position. An approach to the problem There are countless reports about "publication explosion" and "information revolution." The 1975 Boston Conference of the American Society of Information Science (ASIS) was devoted to the theme of "Information Revolution." The question is whether there is such a revolution in other words are we talking about a phenomenon or its main trends? The phenomenon is this: there is an exponential growth of total publications their excess is expressed statistically so no one can deny it. Pars pro toto: if there was a scientific-technological revolution then there is an information revolution too. And if there is a revolution on then we have to fight it with revolutionary means: with new technology, automation, computerisation. But there can be another approach too. What is generally called an information revolution may just be considered as information inflation — growth beyond necessities. When we examine the terminology the content of information science — its mathematical problems, uses, needs, time-shares and ethical erosion — we can see that there is both a revolution and an inflation. One may say that philosophy and theory apart we have to concentrate on real problems which means to see our way out of the information flood. This pragmatic approach is prevailing at the present time. Could the "protection of the environment " - which tries to cope with pollution caused by overproduction - be regarded as some kind of revolution or simply a scientific-social recognition which aims to correct the anarchic elements of production? The author apologises for his title. It may just provide some diversion amidst reading the stern theories of information methodologies.