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of doing so is getting scientific publications to them. The two most 
direct solutions are getting back issues from private* holdings and 
redistributing them to the remote sensing organizations that need and 
want them, and getting current issues by both continuing support from 
individuals and gaining support from the publishers to print a few 
hundred extra copies for distribution to Third World organizations. 
As any journal or book publisher can tell you, the delta costs of 
additional copies on a large print-run are exceedingly small—only the 
cost of the paper. The ITC Journal is already committed to this; 
PE&RS should find it relatively easy, and may in fact already be doing 
it. The publishers of "Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing" (Elsevier) 
and the "International Journal of Remote Sensing" (Taylor and Francis) 
are both commercial publishers and may be more problematic. Free 
distribution would in no way conflict with their established markets, 
however, since we are dealing with countries too poor to buy their 
products. 
Ideally, this should be viewed as a temporary measure—a stop-gap 
effort until Third World organizations are able to obtain their own 
funds. Given the general unwillingness of northern countries to pro 
vide the kinds of support these countries need, I suspect self-sus 
taining economic growth and financial stability are still a long way 
off in many places. Moreover, world population growth will always 
impose more pressing demands on national treasuries. 
I have really just got warmed up in this undertaking, and about all I 
have learned is where to start asking questions. Before I get too far 
out on this limb, however, I want to get more people interested and 
involved in it, more suggestions on what to do and what not to do, and 
sufficient encouragement from the organization that, if a good plan 
can be developed and the proper groundwork laid, ISPRS will support 
it—both physically and financially. 
Time is, of course, important. I hope to have a formal proposal to 
put before the next ISPRS congress in 1992. It should be possible in 
the intervening period to identify—with your help—the organizations 
and institutions that should receive this assistance (and can benefit 
from it) and to assist them in defining their most urgent needs. It 
should also be possible in that time to gain some sort of commitment 
from journal and book publishers and also to get reliable information 
on the actual operating costs. (I am assuming a volunteer staff will 
run it, but postage will be an unavoidable expense.) Efforts should 
be coordinated with the Third World Academy of Science,, and we need to 
work with the professional organizations of related disciplines--some 
of which have successful programmes of their own. We need to be in 
close contact with them 'in any case, since they can give valuable 
advice on how or how not to proceed. 
If ISPRS support is there, and there are sufficient people elsewhere 
who are willing to participate, I see no reason why we cannot have a 
collection and distribution system ready to start working in 1992. 
ISPRS commissions and working groups have spent -years establishing 
educational standards in photogrammetry and remotd sensing. It now