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

L. Kiuzadjan newly reconstituted institutes and associations of Eastern Europe, and the international community. It also means that topics should be largely chosen so as to involve the widest possible range of interests at any one time. An Enabling Organisation The Vienna Centre initiates and coordinates cooperation, exchange, and comparative research in the social sciences. It acts as an international facilitator. Its own direct contributions are a part of this cooperation, exchange and (comparative) research with others. The existence of a Centre like this must be an advantage to the social sciences in Europe. Above all, its potential for future development is enormous, and relatively unexplored. More effort will be directed internally towards outlining ways in which the Centre will be useful as a facilitator, and towards ways in which the information assembled there can be put to good use. The recent developments in information sciences are relevant here. Lack of adequate investment has hampered the Centre's manipulation of the information which it has. Thanks to recent modernisation, this can now be both ordered and published with greater rapidity, and new methods of dissemination, such as CDROM, on-line services and Bulletin Board systems have been explored. The other limiting factor in this operation has, until now, been the parlous state of communications infrastructure in some parts of Europe. As this improves, so can the Centre's role as the hub of a communications network grow. The existing work of the Centre is very relevant to this evolution; the ECSSID programme can profitably expand its work, and the results of the other programmes link with it more effectively. The Vienna Centre's contribution to cross-national comparative research Social scientists engage in international comparative research because, basically, each social event is part of a historical sequence within a given cultural context. This implies — that social scientists must introduce some form of historical perspective into the analysis of the specific phenomena they are investigating, for a timeless analysis would be meaningless; 158 Thoughts in the library "