REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS: THE COMMITTEE ON PROCUREMENT OF FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS (PROCIB)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00069A000100100009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 24, 1998
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 15, 1960
• Content Type: MISC

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
OFFICE OF CENTRAL REFERENCE
1 5 AUG 1980
REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS: TEE COMMITTEE
ON PROCUREMENT OF FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS (PRCCIB)
I. INTRODUCTION:
Previous papers have dealt with broad aspects of requirements. In this
paper we wish to stress one very important type of requirement: foreign
publications. Practically every writer with knowledge of the intelligence
process has pointed out that 80-90% of the information used in the production
of intelligence is available from open and overtly procurable publications'.
From this statement one should not, however, infer that, in fact, 80-90% of
intelligence is produced from such publications. The unfortunate situation
is that many people (and in high places) somehow associate the classification
of a document with the validity or usefulnesa of the information contained in
that document. The point remains without successful challenge though, that
80-90% of intelligence could be produced from the information contained in
overtly Procured publications. It is the coordination of the program for
this overt procurement of publications that is the concern of the Committee
on Procurement of Foreign Publications (PROCIB).
II. BACKGROUND:
In the early days of CIA there was a spasm of thinking, fortunately
brief., which went something like this. Establish a reference center which
would deal with English-language books.. Establish an operation which would
translate all foreign language publications needed by analysts Who were
experts in their respective subject fields. Ergo, you do not need foreign
language capability either in your reference center or among your analysts.
You do need translators, who in turn require books, magazines and newspapers
from everywhere.
As the Agency became more sophisticated, the blending of the ideas
mentioned took place. The reference center became a real library - needing
foreign publications because the analysts using it were either trained or
recruited for their foreign language and subject competence. The linguists
on the other hand, were receiving more intelligent requirements and soon
learned that they were an integral part of the intelligence production structure.
There were eaten-11y known cases where analysts and linguists were prepared to
acknowledge each other's competence.
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III. DISCUSS:
Row do requirements for foreign publications develop? In CIA we start
with the Library, which must be in a position to satisfy any requester's
particular needs. The research needs of ORB require a collection strong in
economics; of OSI, in science and technology; of CCI, everything substantial
on communism, foreign areas, etc. and all current. Library personnel are
constantly studying office requirements, either by scanning announced research
programs, or by the expanding personal contacts they have developed throughout
the Agency. We are always trying to an14.1121.11 the broad needs of our research
associates. This function, which involves the development of our Library
collections, would, if not contained properly, result in a library almost
equal to the magnificent collections of the Library of Congress. But to maintain
a proper delimitation, we rely on all major library collections in the United
States to backstop us. Our book collections in the Library in our new building
will not exceed 200-225,000 volumes. A vigorous weeding process makes this
containment effective. In addition to the Library's needs, we in OCR are also
the mechanism through which all specific publications required by all of CIA
are procured. For example, an analyst sees a reference to an American book
that be believes will be of use to him. He orders it. A comparatively simple
operation. But suppose he wants to subscribe to a foreign, communist newspaper.
A more complicated problem, but it can be and is being done.
So much for the Agency's requirements. CIA, however, by its very charter,
has a coordinating responsibility. We faced this problem head on in 1953 when
the National Security Council (NSCID16) established the Advisory Committee on
Foreign Language Publications to assist the DCI in the coordination of the
publications program. Representatives of the IAC (now USIB) were appointed to
the Committee, which had three Subcommittees: Procurement, Exploitation and
Reference. I was Chairman of this Committee from 1954 to its dissolution in
1958 and havebeen Chairman of the successor committee, PROCIB, since 1958.1
Recognizing that the publication collection mechanism needed support, the
Committee noted the assumption by CIA of the functions of the Foreign Publications
Branch, Department of State in 1953. The Acquisitions Branch of the CIA Library
administers these functions which include the coordination of the requirements
of 20 other U.S. agencies; it levies requirements upon appropriate Foreign
Service officers in the field, and receives and disseminates the material sent
back to Washington. It is interesting to note that one of the earliest problems
discussed by the Advisory Committee was the need for coordination in the field
between Foreign Service Publications Procurement Officers and the Service Attaches.
This remains a problem today because of a reluctance on the part of the Military
Services to cooperate except in selected cases.
Among the major achievements of Committee action in the area of requirements
were:
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a. Revised Chapter 943 of the Foreign Service Manual, dealing
with Publications Procurement.
b. Prepared and issued, for example, two collection guides
(Chinese Communist newspapers and periodicals) to field collectors of
the three Services, State and CIA. Field collection facilities of the
Army and the Air Force in Japan were particularly helpful. Also issued
other specialized want lists or similar compilations of requirements.
0. Recommended to the State Department that Publications Procure-
ment Officer positions be established at Tokyo and Djakarta, and re-
established in Cairo and London. Cairo and London were reactivated in
Fiscal Year 1957. The position at Tokyo, that of Geographic Attache, has
been utilized half-time as Publications Procurement Officer since 1953.
Djakarta has not been manned.
d. Persuaded USIA to allow us to use its overseas resources to
obtain information on the availability of foreign publications. The
information in turn was of value in the preparation of collection
instructions in certain areas.
e. Made field trips to improve coordination of collection and to
clarify requirements.
f. Received IAC concurrence for a letter from the DCI to be sent
to the Secretary of State stressing the importance of the publications
procurement program to the intelligence community and recommending
augmentation in certain areas.
g. Stimulated evaluations to the field incorporating specific
examples of the contributions overt publications have made to intelli-
gence.
25X1X4 Provided persoe1 engaged in interrogation work (particularly
with adequate requirements for information on
foreign publications.
i. Recommended a draft DCID 2/5, Procurement of Foreign Publications,
to the IAC, which recognized that the procurement program had grown to
the extent that a separate Committee was needed to coordinate it.
DCID 2/5 established the Committee on Procurement of Foreign Publications
(PROCIAC) of the IAC. Later in 1958, USIB was established and the IAC committee
structure was approved for USIB. PROCIAC became PROCIB.
In addition to the continuing programs mentioned above, the following are
notevorthly achievements by PROCIB in the area of requirements:
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a. The three national libraries o the U.S., Library of
Congress, National Library of Medicine, and the Department of
Agriculture Library, as well as the National Science Foundation
and USIA were invited to participate in PROCIB diacussions. By
bringing selected, important collection facilities into the intelli-
gence picture through participation of the national libraries in
PROCIB discuasions, the importance of all foreign publications
programs to intelligence was stressed. We have maintained continuing
liaison with the academic world through the mechanism of the Associ-
ation of Research Libraries, a group of the 50 leading university
and other research libraries in the U.S. Sanitized versions of field
survey reports have been made available to them, as well as literally
tons of foreign pablications through the device of the Library of
Congress duplicate exchange collections Our atm is to know what is
being collected, where and for Whom, because we believe publications
to be a, vital resource to intelligence, no matter whether the materials
be in our library, another government libraii, or in a university
library.
b. To stress the importance of close contact between the field
collector and Washington, Publications Procurement Officer Conferences
were held in 1958 and 1960. Both conferences were attended by a
majority. of full-time Foreign Service Publications Procurement Officere
as well as representatives from the Air Force: Army Map Service, CIA
and State.
c. The Procurement Committee works closely with the Committee
on Exploitation of Foreign Language Publications to arrange extraordinary
procurement of materials of high priority. In response to a list of 51
critical Far Eastern publications received from the EXploitation Committee,
PROCIB utilized all sources available to it, succeeded in procuring or
eliminating all but one of the items and submitted a requirement for that
one title to the Intelligence Priorities Committee for collection.
d. In the absence of any coordinating mechanism, PROCIB realized
that graphics materials were in fact a special case of publications
procurement. It therefore assumed coordination and procurement responsi-
bilities in this area.
e. A bibliography of requirements activities carried out by PROCIB
and its predecessor committees is appended.
IV. AREAS OF CONTINUING CONCERN:
State Department field collection facilities for foreign publications
are available to the intelligence community to a considerably greater degree
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than those of the military services. Requirements for overtly available
publications are seldom coordinated with other procurement channels by the
Military Services.
A single fund has been established in Moscow for the procurement of
publications by the Officer there on behalf of eleven U.S. agencies, again
excluding the services. If this program meets with success at this major
post, the experience derived 1411 be stUdied for application at other posts
such as Paris, Berlin, Cairo or London.
The State Department has executive responsibility (executive Order 10249
of 1951) for the publications procurement program, including the allocation
of personnel, although CIA requirements account for more than 75% of the
total amount of money spent in the field. We in CIA believe that better
qualified personnel should be selected by State to fill the full-time publi-
cation procurement officer posts. Another facet of the problem is the
extremely low priority given publications procurement in the field. It is
considered to be no asset to a Foreign Service Officer's career to be a
publication procurement officer. On the other hand, certain highly-qualified
and well-motivated officers who are prepared to make publications procurement
a career are prevented from doing so by the regulations of the Foreign Service
a paradox indeed.
All assets in the community should be mobilized to ensure the procure-
ment of Soviet hard-to-get titles, and Chinese Communist scientific and
technical publications.
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