sist NEWSLETTER vol.1, no. 4 NEW ORGANIZATIONS/ REORGANIZATION UNISIST At the 19th session of the UNESCO General Conference, a resolution was adopted concerning the future development of the UNISIST program. The UNISIST Newsletter (Volume 4, No. 4, 1976) notes that the "Conference agreed to set up a General Information Programme concerning the activities of the organization in the field of scientific and technical information and of documentation, libraries and archives." Part 5 of the Resolution particularly concerns the data archive community: It "authorizes the Director-General to facilitate the implementation of the General Information Programme, by seeing that activities are integrated with a view to: ... (c) contributing to the development of information infrastructures and to the application of modern tech- niques of data collection, processing, transfer and reproduction, [and] (d) promoting the training and education of information special- ists and information users, with particular attention to the needs of the developing countries, especially the problems of transfer of infor- mation and data from the technologically advanced countries to the de- veloping nations." The UNISIST Newsletter issues which were sent to the lASSIST Newsletter Editor contain a great deal of information on upcoming meetings throughout the world which will deal with an assortment of information problems (such as transfer, documentation and systems development, bibliographic data bases, management, training of staff, resource sharing) and descriptions of informa- tion systems (such as POPINS [International Population Information System], ISONET [International Standards Information Network]). IASSIST members in the U.S. may request back copies of the UNISIST/General Information Program Newsletter and ask to be placed on the mailing list by writing to: CISTIP Secretariat, National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418. Outside the U.S., lASSIST members should contact their respective national science academy or the UNESCO Division of Scientific and Technological Information and Documentation, 7, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France. CISTIP stands for the U.S. Committee for UNISIST. [Com- mittees with the same purpose must have been established in other countries. If lASSIST members have information about this, please pass it on through the News- letter .] UNESCO has also created an Ad Hoc Committee on Social Science Information, which will hold its first meeting in Paris in November 1977. It is intended that this Ad Hoc Committee will provide intellectual and policy guidance for the inclusion of social science information in UNISIST. [From a letter by Fred W. Riggs to Judith S. Rowe, 4 October 1977, pp. 1,2.] INSSIST, the International Social Science Information Services and Tech- nologies, is an action group which intends to serve as a catalyst for the tasks of liaison. INSSIST will meet to exchange information during the forthcoming ISA [?] conference in Washington (Sheraton Park Hotel, February 22-26, 1978), 41 sist NEWSLETTER vol.1, no. 4 The director of the UNESCO Division responsible for promoting the inter- national development of social science, Vladimir Mshvenieradze, is expected to attend and report on the work of his division, including the new Ad Hoc Commit- tee. The time and place of the meeting will be announced in the final ISA pro- gram. [Announcement of INSSIST meeting from Fred Riggs to lASSIST Editor, received 2 November 1977.] INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR STATISTICAL COMPUTING E. Lunenberg, director of the Permanent Office of the International Statis- tical Institute, has sent Wm. Gammell (US Coordinator of DOM AG) the following announcement of the formation of an International Association for Statistical Computing, a section of the International Statistical Institute. lASC will be open to membership among those interested in promoting the theory, methods, and practice of statistical computing. The objectives of the Association will be to foster interest and knowledge in effective statistical computing through in- ternational contacts among statisticians, computing professionals, organizations, institutions, governments and the general public in different countries of the world. Special attention will be given to the developing countries. It intends to promote collaborative efforts with international, national, regional and other organizations and institutions with similar aims; foster evaluations of statisti- cal computing techniques and programs; and, facilitate the exchange of computer programs and their documentation. The Association plans programs and meetings particularly in conjunction with sessions of the International Statistical In- stitute. The organization will formally come into existence and have its inau- gural meeting in December 1977, during the 41st Session of the International Statistical Institutes in New Delhi, India. The program planned for the lASC meeting includes (1) statistical computing and future directions in the context of an international association for statis- tical computing; a constitutional/business meeting; and, interactions between statistics and computing. Mervin E. Muller will speak on the purposes and aspir- ations of lASC; Ivor Francis, on the portability, evaluation, and certification of programs by statistical associations and societies; Tore Dalenius, on inter- national implications of computer privacy; Graham Wilkinson, on language require- ments and designs to aid data analysis and computing; Julio Ortuzar, on editing census and survey data using small computers in developing countries, including a review of experience with CONCOR; and, Geoffrey Thomas, on assisting data pro- cessing activities in developing countries. [All appear to be quite relevant topics for IASSIST members. Let's hope that papers or proceedings will be available.] Further information and details can be obtained by writing: International Statistical Institute, 428 Prinses Betrixlann, Voorburg, Netherlands. Annual individual member's dues structure is (1) members from developed countries, $15 per year; and (2) members from developing countries who request a reduced rate, $7 per year.