Information activities in the field of social sciences in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

I.NATIONAL DOCUMENTATION AND INFORMATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELDOFSOCIAL SCIENCES In Czechoslovakia extraordinary attention and support is given to the problem of information. Even the highest Party and State authorities are concerned with these problems. Particular attention is paid to information activities in the field of social sciences, as this field is closely connected with the ideological and social interests of the socialist society. This fact was accentuated again also in the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of May 1974, dealing with problems and development of social sciences in Czechoslovakia. By this resolution the information activities in the field of social sciences were outlined as targets of further development. Information activities in the field of social sciences in Czechoslovakia are a part of the Czechoslovak system of scientific, technical and economic information (STEI). The Federal Ministry of Technical and Economic Development is the responsible authority for this field. The targets of the information system are determined by the programme of the state information policy which is based on the resolution of the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia determining the further trends of development of socialist Czechoslovakia. In accordance with these trends the programme of the state information policy determines the tasks of the Czechoslovak information system and the development of its further integration with the information system of other socialist countries. The solution of the problems of the Czechoslovak information system STEI is governed by a number of Government decrees and legislative measures. Of decisive importance are the Government Decree Nos. 20/73 and 174/74 defining the fundamental tasks of the whole information system. (The system is divided into three parts, i.e. social economics, information (statistics), information for state plans and budgets; third part is the system of scientific, technical and economical information (STEI), which is particularly concerned in our contribution. The problems of STEI information activities are touched upon, to a considerable degree, also by the law No. 53/59 on the system of libraries defining the rights and duties of scientific libraries in the individual fields. In Czechoslovakia the information activities are subordinated to the Ministries of Education and the Ministries of Culture (this subordination concerns the field of social sciences). On the basis of the federalization principle the ministries above are both in the Czech and in the Slovak Socialist Republic. The supreme institution in the field of basic research is the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences whose information network corresponds with the structure of this institution and incorporates both natural and social sciences. The same applies also to the Slovak Academy of Sciences which forms an integral part of the Czechoslovak Academy. The structure of the leading information institutions in the field of social sciences in Czechoslovakia corresponds to the basic fieldand institutional structure outlined above. The most important in this structure are the central information institutions of the ministries above. Each of these institutions heads a network of information centres of the individual ministries. Therefore, the State Library of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Matica Slovenska in the Slovak Socialist Republic are the leading centres of the network of libraries. Analogues tasks are fulfilled by the Institutes of Educational Information in Prague and Bratislava in the field of education. In the Academy of Sciences its Main LibraryXentre of Scientific Information in Prague and the Central Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava are charged with these tasks. Apart from these fields other specialized and branch information centres exist in the spheres,of other ministries. The Institutes of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the Central Committee of the Com-