Purpose
The purpose of this bibliography, following on previous UIA initiatives, is to provide further stimulation for the international community involved in the study of international non-governmental organization. As a unique and much needed resource, it provides easy access to a broad and detailed body of research and documentation. Additionally, the size and manner of its presentation seeks to stimulate interest in specific research areas and to generate investigation into new domains of international associational life and activity.
Bibliography contents and research methodology
The present bibliography includes most of the material from previous UIA bibliographic efforts to identify materials relevant to fields of study concerning international governmental organizations and transnational association networks/international non-governmental organization:
– International Institutions and International Organization: a select bibliography (1956; 783 entries).
– Select Bibliography on International Organization (1965; 1,080 entries)
– Bibliography of Documents on Transnational Association Networks (1972 edition of this Yearbook; revised version in the 1974 French edition of this Yearbook)
Where evident, duplicate citations have been removed. All entries have been grouped into rough subject categories based on the categories used in the 1974 bibliography. As this bibliography project continues, it is expected that the subject headings will increase in number and detail.
This section contains 7,929 entries; the majority of the citations are in English and French although citations also include materials in: Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, and Portuguese. When available, information was included to indicate editions available in other languages. Where appropriate, some entries have been duplicated under different subject headings.
Note: The inclusion of the data from previous UIA bibliographic initiatives has somewhat broadened the focus of the current presentation. This is due, in part, to the fact that the earlier initiatives included "international organization" as part of their research mandate. The present research initiatives, as hopefully reflected in the content of the bibliography, have focused primarily on international non-governmental organization and especially transnational association networks.
In addition to the three base bibliographic sources above, a number of methods were used to identify appropriate materials for inclusion here:
1. Back-indexing of Transnational Associations: This was undertaken because the UIA's periodical publication (under different titles) has been a natural focal point for materials relevant to the study of INGOs – either through original contributions from researchers and organizations or through its function as a collator and re-publisher of materials of import to the international associational community.
Comprehensive back indexing was completed from 1996 through 1970. Earlier citations from the UIA's periodicals will be found in the bibliography; these stem from common citations in other source materials as well as from a prior UIA effort at electronically indexing Transnational Associations (period covering the 1980's). Materials from the index not relevant to the present bibliography were excluded.
Future activity: It is expected that comprehensive back-indexing will continue in order to have a complete record of articles in database format for consultation and other use. Relevant citations will then be included in future editions of this bibliography.
2. UIA publications: UIA publications, in and of themselves, and the bibliographic material they contain were a valuable source of entries for the bibliography. Multiple editions of the same publication (eg the UIA's Yearbook of International Organizations) were listed under one single entry so as to reduce the number of entries for a single title.
Future activity: Where appropriate, archival materials will be checked for relevant citations. Of particular note are the materials published by the UIA prior to 1940 which may not be catalogued or cited in easily accesible sources.
3. Reports and other materials in the UIA's possession: UIA and its staff have collected a large amount of materials which have been submitted by individuals, members and organizations. These materials range from published documents to "grey literature". The items themselves have been cited here and have often been a valuable source of bibliographic information on other materials.
Future activity: A large amount of this archival material remains unprocessed (due to time restrictions for this edition). It is expected that these materials will be processed into the database and citations will appear in future editions of this volume.
4. Materials from international organizations and re-searchers: A number of international governmental and non-governmental organizations and university professors / researchers answered our requests for information on relevant publications. Their replies were responsible for providing some of the most detailed citations on current topics.
We would like to thank Dr Peter Waterman of the Institute of Social Studies for making his “Real Movement” database available to us for use in this project. Approximately 750 entries of the 3,500 total have been added to this bibliography from his data; this number may actually be higher as several of his articles which appeared in recent issues of Transnational Associations were bibliographic in nature or contained large reference sections. Our thanks also go to John Steenwinkel of the ISS for his crucial assistance in transfering the data from the ISS to the UIA.
Dr Waterman is interested in making his “Real Movement” database available more widely. It has extensive entries on “alternative international relations”, “global civil society”, “international social movements”, “alternative global communications and culture”. Dr Waterman can be contacted at: http://www.antenna.nl/~waterman/
Future activity: We will continue to contact relevant individuals and organizations for their suggestions/assistance. We were unable to process a number of materials received from contacts for this edition; these will be processed for future editions.
5. Traditional Research Methods: Several libraries in the Brussels region provided resources for identifying materials for the bibliography through traditional research methods.
Future activity: We will continue to use available resources to further develop the bibliography.
6. Electronic Research Methodology: The Internet and the World Wide Web provide access to a large amount of information. Direct access to publishers' in-print catalogues and the catalogues of libraries around the world as well as the on-line publication/presentation of materials and resources from researchers and organizations facilitated the identification of appropriate materials – as well facilitating contact between the UIA other researchers.
Future activity: With the continuing growth of the world-wide computer network, it is expected that more materials will be identifiable via the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Errors and corrections
Errors in the bibliography will stem from 3 sources:
– human errors during keyboarding which were not corrected by electronic processing;
– errors inherent in the source materials;
– errors due to various electronic processing – including the scanning and character recognition of the 3 previous UIA bibliographic publications – which were used to spellcheck the data and standardize its presentation.
We welcome all additional materials for consideration in this bibliography as well as comments on content, structure and presentation. Corrections for materials cited here are greatly appreciated as this will facilitate other users access to the documents.
In Thanks
The editors would like to express their gratitude to the individuals, librarians, professors, archivists and organizations who shared information with us and provided much appreciated assistance in the development of this section.