UNISIST

susheel chaurasiya, mslis ,DRTC 1
Topic : United Nations International Scientific Information
System [UNISIST]
Susheel Kumar Chourasiya
MS [LIS] 2016-18
DOCUMENTATION RESEARCH AND TRAINING CENTRE
INDIAN STATISTICAL INSTITUTE, BANGALORE CENTRE
PIN: 560059

Contents
● Introduction
● History of UNISIST
● Aims and Objectives
● Activities of UNISIST
● Why need of such program
● NISSAT in India
● Conclusion

Introduction
● The United Nations , Educational , Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) has been concerned with
information matters since its founding in 1946.
● Article 1 of UNESCO's constitution stipulates that the
Organisation shall:
''maintain ,increase and diffuse knowledge ... by incouraging and co-
operation among the nations in all branches of intellectual activity ... the
exchange of publications ... and other materials of information; and by initiating
methods of international co-operations calculated to give the people of all
countries access to the printed and published material produced by any of them.''

Cont..
● UNISIST refers to the set of methods , norms
standards , principles and techniques developed
within the frame work of the Unesco General
Information programme;
● Previously was the Intergovernmental programme
for cooperation in the field of scientific and
Technological information , integrated within
General Information Program (PGI) in 1976.

History of UNISIST
● The two organizations UNESCO and International Council
of Scientific Council (ICSU) jointly formed a UNESCO /
ICSU central committee in January 1967 to carry out a
feasibility study for a world science information system.
● The feasibility study continued for about 4 years and in 1970
the report entitled UNISIST study report on feasibility of a
world science information system by UNESCO and ICSU
was published and widely distributed. The feasibility report
was prepared by Jean Claude Gardin.

Cont...
● This report and a synoptic version became the
working document of the UNISIST inter
governmental conference held in Paris in October
1971.
● A second conference, the inter-governmental
conference on scientific and technical information
for development was held in Paris in 1979 to review
development since UNISIST conference of 1971.
This was known as UNISIST –II

Aims and Objectives
● The ultimate goal or keynote of UNISIST is the establishment of a
flexible and loosely connected network of information services
based on voluntary cooperation.
● UNISIST Aims are
to coordinate existing trends toward cooperation
to act as a catalyst for the necessary development in
scientific and technical information
to develop the necessary condition for system
interconnections and,
to facilitate access to world information resources.

Cont..
● The UNISIST study report made twenty two
recommendations which are focused on five main
objectives of the UNISIST programme. The may be
summarized as follows:
● a) Improvement of tools of system intercommunication
➢ Standard for machine interface;
➢ better tools for control of natural and indexing languages in S&T;
➢ establishment of international standards for bibliographical
description.

Cont...
● b) Strengthening the role of institutional
components of the information transfer
chain
➢ strengthening of basic access viz. abstracting,
indexing and translation services ;
➢ Library infrastructure as essential component
of scientific information transfer.

Cont...
● c) Development of specialized manpower.
➢Authors and editors should exercise
responsibility of maintenance of quality control;
➢international agencies should influence scientists
to participate in programmes aimed at
improvement of World-wide information
transfer.

Cont..
● d) Development of scientific information policies and
structure
➢National scientific information agencies should co-operate in
programmes of international scope within UNISIST goals
such as
➢ world-wide availability of scientific documents and data
➢information transfer network,
➢ pricing policies and.
➢administrative barriers.

Cont..
● e) Assistance in developing countries
in the development of scientific and
technical information infrastructure
➢linking the development of countries with
UNISIST with regard to technical
information needs.

Activities of the UNISIST
● Under the UNISIST programme, standards rules, principles and
techniques for the processing and transfer of information are
adopted and applied internationally.
● a) Standardization of Bibliographic Description: The
UNISIST/ICSU working group has prepared a draft manual
(Reference manual for machine readable bibliographic
description).
● b) Control of Serials and Abstracting / Indexing Periodicals: To
have a complete control over the periodical publications a
computer based system of data bank has been established under
the name of International Serial Data System (ISDS).

Cont...
● c) Broad System of Ordering (BSO): In view of the great diversity of
classification schemes that are the existence the B.S.O has been
conceived as a switching mechanism to link different individual
classification and thesauri in the process of information transfer.
● d) Handbook and Manual: A comprehensive handbook for scientific
information and documentation services in developing countries has
been planned. The handbook has been published in 1977.
● e) National Focal Point: Emphasis has been given to the creation of a
focal point to scientific information agencies in each country.

Why need of such programs
● In the present day world, the role of scientific and technical
information has become increasingly important for an overall
development of nations. The nations progress is totally
dependent upon the quality of information, its easy availability,
transfer and utilisation.
● The dynamic and affluent society is heading towards more and
more complexities because of social, economic, techno-logical
and cultural advancements.These complexities can be solved
only by providing complete and accurate information which can
in turn help the society getting aware about recent
advancements.

● Research - new scientific & technological Innovations &
facilities&knowledge,
● Development & -Techniques, application of knowledge.
Design
● Production - Techniques, equipment, production control.
● Materials - Specifications, quality control, and supply.
● Marketing - Know-how & management,teristic &
control.
● Management - Know-how & techniques, management infor-
mation system,Control of access.
Information requirements and
functions

India at UNISIST
● The NISSAT advisory committee functions as the national committee of
UNISIST in India.
● In India , NISSAT is the organ of UNISIST program of UNESCO.
● The NICLAI of NISSAT is concerned with Leather and Allied Industry.
● The NICDROM is a sectoral information centre of NISSAT – CDROM.
● NICDAP of NISSAT is concerned with which subject scope – Drug and
Pharmaceuticals.
● National centre on Bibliography is fuctioning in India under the support
of NISSAT.

Conclusion
● To sum up, UNISIST has achieved considerable
success since its inception.It has extended its
scope to whole range of world information as per
needs of the world society. A great deal is yet to
be achieved which is dependent upon the co-
operation between developed and developing
countries.Its success further depends upon the
designing of national infrastructure by all the
countries.

References
● http://www.netugc.com/unisist
● http://unesdoc.unesco.org
● https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
● http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/2
7938/1/ALIS%2032(1-2)%207-14.pdf
● http://www.niscair.res.in/jinfo/ALIS/ALIS%202
3(3)%20(Focus%20on%20Unisist%20Programmes).pd
f
● http://jis.sagepub.com/content/7/4-5/205.extract

Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3

UNISIST

More Related Content

UNISIST