ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS THIRD ANNUAL REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00400R000300040031-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2006
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: March 12, 1956
• Content Type: REPORT

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CONFIDENTIAL
12 March 1956
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS
THIRD ANNUAL REPORT
I. Authority
The Committee is composed of representatives of the IAC
agencies and can invite other interested agencies to sit w' n
matters which concern them. 25X1
II. Organization
Three subcommittees have been established which comprehend in
general the responsibilities separately identified in the Directive and
which are listed below.
III. Responsibilities, Accomplishments and Objectives
-;
a
p c on o ie L..st has been postponed until Spring, 1956.
b. I rovements and expansion of procurement f ci iting
2. Projects Completed;
a. Compilation of the Union List of USSR Serial Publications
was substantially completed save for a considerable number of USSR
periodical and newspaper titles which either appeared initially or reap-
peared after a long absence during 1955. To incorporate such titles,
+
' f 4- 1.
ub1i
.Y .9
Cairo, Djakarta, and London. Justification for such positions and c
andi-
dates suitable for filling them were submitted. The Department of State
has guaranteed the reestablishment of the PPO positions at least at Cairo
and London with the beginning of FY 57.
uring 19 , discussions centered about
Tor Publication Procurement Officer (PPO) positions at Tok o
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The use of personnel on TIDY at particular posts,
although not entirely satisfactory, has been of value to the PPO program
and in areas such as and Southeast Asia might prove
IZ
beneficial.
a-
Apart from staffing problems, the largest single obstacle
encountered in field procurement remains the varied clerical tasks which
encumber the intelligence operations of the PPO. During 1955, moderate
success was obtained in reducing this load by transferring to `Washington
the book accessioning and accounting tasks of PPO;s Moscow, Paris, and
Hong Kong. The transfer of such functions permitted PPOts to spend more
time on the selective acquisition of required publications.
As a result of the early summer trip of Mr. George Pope, Chief,
IAD/State to Europe, expansion of the Iberian Peninsula procurement
program and of increased procurement in Rome, Athens, and Bern were
implemented. The senior PPO's of the areas concerned, i.e., Paris and
Berlin, were instructed to develop contacts with local book dealers and
engage their cooperation in bringing to the attention of local Mission
representatives information on publications of potential interest to
Washington. This program is still in the formative stage.
c. Efforts to coordinate requirements in Washington and
collection in the field have continued. Accomplishments in coordinating
requirements and collection by action of member agencies unilaterally 25X1
or jointly include:
(4) The development of cooperative schemes for obtaining
Sino-Soviet Bloc publications via informal exchanges through foreign
academic research organizations is progressing rapidly. The New Delhi,
Berlin, Paris and Tokyo PPOts have made contributions worthy of note.
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CONFIDEN TIAL
(6) USIA initiated the utilization of its overseas resources
to provide information on publication availability abroad. The USIS personnel
do not procure materials,
3. Projects Planned
a. To reexamine the advantages and disadvantages in having a
procurement program in the light o the successes of the past year, as
recited above.
25X1
b. To continue to study the possibility of a single fund concept
for serial subscriptions and book and monograph purchase at Embassy Moscow
for all agencies. If successful at Moscow, similar procedures would be
studied for other posts.
c. To determine further advantages in the exchange program in
line with accomplishments reported in paragraph III.2.c.(4) above.
d. USIA will continue its efforts in utilizing its overseas
resources to provide information on the availability of published materials
in foreign posts.
2. Projects Completed
a. The second review of the foreign language publication
exploitation program gave special attention to;
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This review resulted in refinement of the program. EEecommen-
dations of the members included the publication of 13 periodical reports
containing unique information of walue to the community.
b. The Exploitation Subcommittee has examined the subject of
translation service facilities and needs of the IAC agencies, and finds th:~~X1
(1) the Department of State has no established translation
service facilities for the support
(2) the Departments of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the
National Security Agency have established internal translation services.
Their needs in this field are being met by current arrangements and these
agencies recommend no change.
(3) the United States Information Agency (USIA) has no
established translation service facilities within its agency but depends
heavily upon State However, because of the volume
of translation service and Me -necessity for speed, USIA must frequently
contract with private citizens for such services.
It is therefore found that the establishment of a central translation
service is neither desirable nor advisable at this time,
c. Two years of operation of the exploitation subcommittee have
brought the objectives of the group more clearly into focus. As a result,
a restatement of these objectives was made and approved by the parent
committee*
d. The transliteration practices of member agencies were reviewed.
e. Standardization of Chinese Communist terminology was examined
by a Working Group. The report is now under review by the Subcommittee.
3. Projects Planned
a. A third review of the exploitation program is currently under
way for the Sino-Soviet Bloc and the third review of the exploitation of
non-Communist area publications will follow. The objectives of this review
are:
(1) To determine as precisely as possible the priority
needs of the various agencies using these criteriaa
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several agencies.
(b) The needs for the same or similar information by
(c) The suitability of available foreign language
publications to meet these needs.
(2) To determine precisely what needs of the respective
agencies cannot be met by existing facilities.
(4) To report in detail to the Advisory Committee with
recommendations as to how foreign language publications. not now exploited,
C. IFERENCE
2. Accomplishments;
a. Inter-agency study of possible new systems for processing
and retrieval by subject of all categories of intelligence source materials,
including foreign language publications, culminated in May 1955 in the
establishment by the IAC of an ad hoc Subcomiriittee on Information Process-
ing (AHIP) to coordinate future developments in this field. Membership in
the new subcommittee coincided with that of the Reference Subcommittee,
both as to Agency and in most instances as to personal representation. As
a result, a number of topics were taken up by AHIP which, previously, had
been discussed by the Reference Subcommittee, or which would, in the
absence of AHIP, have fallen to this group. Among these topics were the
following:
(2) Adoption of a common IAC inter-library loan form.
(3) Development of an IAC-wide document processing
system in anticipation of Minicard.
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to its annotated Guide to Reference Material (CR #1, released January 1956).
The Library also published the last of the Subcommittee sponsored surveys
of Sovbloc lexical materials entitled Russian Lexical Inventory.
3. Projects Planned
On 13 January 1956 the Chairman of the advisory Committee on
Foreign Language Publications directed suspension of meetings of the
Reference Subcommittee and a joining of forces with the ad hoc Subcommittee
on Information Processing, cf. paragraph 2.a. above, so long as the latter
continues in operation. enhere separate consideration of foreign language
publications reference problems is desirable, the AHIP agenda will so
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