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Some of my worries were real, others were not. His most useful infor
mation was that there are any number of professional organizations who
are actively involved in publication recycling programmes. The list
includes the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(which concentrates on sub-Saharan Africa), The World Scientific Press
in Singapore, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Unesco, the'
Physical Society of Japan, the International Union of Biochemistry,
and many more. To avoid duplication of efforts and to optimize finan
cié 1 ! resources, most of these programmes are being coordinated through
the Third World Academy of Science- (TWAS) in Trieste. In the end,
some materials are actually shipped to Trieste and transhipped from
there to the recipients.
This seemed like a splendid solution to what was beginning to appear
as an oversized undertaking, so I got in touch with the people in
Trieste, explaining that we have a slight problem with remote sensing
literature. Whereas TWAS is trying to concentrate of establishing
strong libraries in strong universities (their primary emphasis is of
course on the physical sciences--it was established by Abdus Salam,
the Nobel laureate in physics) , the active remote sensing communities
in many of these countries are probably in separate organizations,
sometimes associated with major universities but often not. I wrote
to Professor Hassan Dalafi in Trieste to see if their system could
accommodate a list of recipients that might not coincide with other
academic disciplines, and he replied that it would not be a problem—
but he wasn't at all specific about how this could be worked out.
TWAS can, however, provide an important service in coordinating the
work of many scientific disciplines and professional organizations,
some of which must have developed quite efficient systems for gather
ing and distributing their professional literature.
The literature situation in Third World countries is critical, and
this is a most opportune time to act. The "graying factor" is impor
tant here. There are many people retiring now (and there will be many
more in the next few years) who have vast bookshelves full of remote
sensing literature—journals, books, publications of all sorts—for
which there is no room at home! The price of scrap paper is so badly
depressed that it is not even economical to throw them out! And all
this while there are libraries in Third World organizations who would
happily go to great extremes to get their hands on any of it.
We all have great expectations and hopes for Third World scientists, a
large number of whom are forced to reinvent the wheel because they are
cut off from professional publications. Many of these people have
been trained in the North and hold advanced degrees from northern
institutions. Many of them are first-class scientists, but they can’t
do first-class work unless they are in close contact with their scien
tific peers. And they can’t establish or maintain that contact if
they don’t have the literature.
I’m sure we all agree that their fellow scientists in the affluent
parts of the world should do what they can to help alleviate this
problem. The easiest, least painful and probably most effective means
