The information policy of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Government Publications Review, Vol. 15, pp. 421-437, Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.

1988 Copyright

THE INFORMATION POLICY OF THE ORGANISATION COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT*

0277-9390/88 $3.00 + .OO 0 1988 Pergarnon Press plc

FOR ECONOMIC

DIANE GARNER** International

Documents

Librarian,

Pennsylvania

State University

Libraries,

University

Park,

PA 16802, USA

Abstract - The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) publishes data and analyses on economic and social activity in developed and developing nations. The kinds of data made available are determined by the mission and operations of the organization. This article describes the structure of the OECD in relation to the flow of information. It discusses policies that restrict access to information as well as those that actively promote the use of OECD publications and services.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is the economic organization of the Western block countries. Cooperation is the key word to describe the way it functions. It is not a supranational organization; nothing in its charter allows it to compel its members to take a particular action. The OECD operates as a discussion group, and, to facilitate discussion, the bureacracy of the OECD gathers and analyzes a great deal of information. Of present interest are the OECD’s information function, the policies that guide it, and its by-products, publications, and information services. The publications of the OECD are well known to librarians and users of academic, research, and business libraries. The same cannot be said of the OECD itself. The relations of the library community with the OECD have been limited to those of publisher and consumer and almost no attention has been paid to how the OECD produces and disseminates information. Few are aware, for example, of the extent to which OECD information may be classified or otherwise made inaccessible. The first problem one encounters in trying to do research on the OECD is how little is published about it, either by the organization itself or by external bodies. Very little is written about its organizational and functional aspects. With the exception of annual reports from the Secretariat and the autonomous bodies and a few public relations pamphlets and books, the OECD publishes almost nothing about its own activities. No OECD proceedings or other internal documents are published or made available to the general public. This is not accidental. The OECD sees itself as a neutral vehicle for its members. *I wish to thank the Readex Corporation and the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table for the Catharine J. Reynolds Grant that supported the research for this paper. I also wish to acknowledge the indispensable cooperation and expertise of the following people: Michael Moynihan and Matthew Brosius of the OECD Information Center in Washington, D.C.; George Williamson of the OECD Publications Service; Jean-Claude Piris, Head of the OECD Legal Directorate; Claire Vayssade of the OECD Main Library; and Janet Sanderson of the U.S. State Department. **Diane Garner is a member of the International Documents Task Force of the American Library Association Government Documents Round Table and a contributor to International Information: Documents, Publications and Information Systems of International Governmental Organizations (Libraries Unlimited, forthcoming). She is editor of Documents to the People. 421

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The organization itself is not the focus. Its information policies deflect attention away from itself to facilitate its members’ discussion of highly volatile political and economic issues outside the glare of the political spotlight. One should not conclude from this reticence that the OECD has something to hide or that it is not interested in sharing information. It seeks credibility through publicizing its data and analyses. It disseminates to the general public much of its information through publications, data files, press briefings, and other information services, but this is done within the context of policies that also carefully control the flow of such information. This article will consider the rules and procedures that limit the availability of information as well as the positive measures taken to freely disseminate information. HISTORY AND PURPOSE The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) grew out of the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), which was created to administer the Marshall Plan for the recovery of post-World War II Europe. By the late 1950s Europe had recovered; there was no longer a substantial role for the OEEC, but it was evident that the Western industrialized nations needed some vehicle for cooperation in what was becoming an increasingly interdependent worldwide economy. At a December 1959 summit meeting in Paris, the heads of government of France, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States agreed on the establishment of a new organization. The following month, representatives of 13 countries and the European Economic Community (EEC) met and appointed a committee to prepare a report for a meeting to be held in April of that year. That report enunciated what were to remain the basic purposes of the OECD: to promote the economic well-being of the member countries and to assist developing countries in improving their economic and social conditions [I]. For the next several months conferences and committees met to work out a draft convention to effect the transformation of the OEEC into the OECD. On December 14, 1960, the Convention was signed by the ministers of 20 countries, subject to the further legal requirements of each country. By September 30 of the following year, 17 countries had ratified the Convention and the OECD came into official existence. The OECD was founded as a way to promote cooperation on economic policies among its members for the benefit of all. One of its primary functions is to supply the member governments with accurate and comparable information and analyses of their national economies and the world economy, and to allow them to talk frankly to each other about economic issues, supported by such data. Having no means to coerce its members, the OECD depends on voluntary cooperation and trust. STRUCTURE Members

As of December 1987 the OECD had 24 members (see Figure 1). The national delegations consist of a permanent mission headed by an ambassador to the OECD with a cadre of representatives to committees and working groups. The size of each delegation depends on the resources and needs of the member country. The United States delegation, for example. includes in its permanent mission an ambassador, representatives from the departments of State, Treasury, and Commerce, and from the Special Trade Representative, as well as permanent and special representatives to each committee. These committee representatives are called in from the appropriate agencies of the executive branch.

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of OECD

Greece

Noruay

Austria

Iceland

Portuga

Belgium

Ireland

Spain

Canada

Italy

Sweden

Denmark

Japan (1964)

Switzerland

Luxembourg

Turkey

Australia

Finland

(1971)

(1969)

France

Netherlands

Germany (FRG)

New Zealand

Yugoslavia, in Council right

Figure

(1973)

not a member of OECD, has a special meetings

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The Regional Political and Economic (RPE) desk of the U.S. Department of State has responsibility for the overall coordination of the U.S. delegation, but its supervision is very loose-knit. Departmental specialists on the committees, who work with their counterparts from other countries for long periods of time, tend to develop informal personal networks in the same way that scientists and academicians do in the nongovernmental sectors. The result is not unlike a typical bureacracy that tends to function on its own momentum although guided in its general direction from the top. Governance

The Council is the governing body of the OECD. Representatives of each of the 24 member countries meet either at the ministerial level (usually annually) or at the permanent representatives level (more frequently, even weekly) to set the broad policy and determine the work of the committees and the secretariat. The chairmanship of the Council rotates annually among the member countries. Whether at the ministerial or the permanent representatives level, the Council is the highest authority in the OECD [2]. It issues decisions that are legally binding on member countries, and recommendations that are not legally binding [3]. It operates on the basis of consensus; every decision must have the unanimous consent of all the members, with the exception that members may choose to abstain on some votes [4]. This requirement for unanimous consent amounts to a de facto veto power over any action with which a member nation disagrees. Such veto power cannot but affect the activities of the organization. The tendency is more towards inaction than action, especially for controversial issues. It also means that diplomacy is of overriding importance; the organization must depend on persuasion and mutual confidence among its members to get anything done. This inevitably has a significant effect on the OECD’s information policy. To keep up with some of the daily decisions and work, the Council designates an Executive Committee comprised of 14 of its members; it is headed by a chairman and vice-chairman named by the Council. Membership on this Executive Committee rotates among countries in principle; in practice it always includes the great economic powers and representatives of groups of smaller countries (e.g., Belgium represents the Benelux countries).

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There are numerous standing and special committees, working parties, and expert groups which carry out the programs set by the Council. Each country that participates in the work of a committee sends one or more representatives to hammer out the political and technical details of a program and make decisions that are subject to the approval of the Council. The representatives come from the agencies of the member governments and bring to the committees both subject expertise and the political interests of their governments. Secretariat

The committees are supported by a Secretariat which consists of a staff of about 1,700, recruited from the member countries. Many have doctoral degrees or other special qualifications. They are international civil servants who do not represent their own countries in any way. On the contrary, they are forbidden by OECD regulations from accepting instructions from the member governments 151. They provide expert and objective information and analysis needed by the committees. Each committee is served by a related directorate (see Figure 2). There are also some administrative directorates serving the overall needs of the Organisation: Budget and Finance, General Administration and Personnel, and the Information and Publication Services. The other elements in the OECD organizational structure are the semi-autonomous bodies that were created by OECD but have their own governing councils. These are the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and the Development Centre. The degree of autonomy varies. IEA and NEA operate under their own charters more or less independently, but CERI and the Development Centre are more closely connected to the parent organization.

The group most directly concerned with establishing explicit information policies is the OECD Council’s Working Party on Information. The membership of this group is not public information, but all member countries are allowed representation. It was created in 1961 to examine the organizational structure and programs for the OECD’s relations with the press and public. The Working Party, made permanent in 1971, is responsible for continuing oversight of OECD’s information policies and programs. In the early 1970s the Working Party on Information undertook a review of policies. A few years later it recommended a policy of greater openness with the press, which was adopted by the Council. Ironically, this policy and the reports and recommendations of the Working Party are restricted information. It is difficult to follow the ongoing concerns and activities of this Working Party because its proceedings are restricted information. It does not publish an annual report, nor is it mentioned in the annual report of the Secretariat. This is not surprising; the Working Party on Information operates in exactly the same way as other entities of the OECD. The reason for this secrecy (habit, lack of interest, or a more active motive such as fear of losing control) can only be a matter of speculation as long as the proceedings of the Working Party are inaccessible. INFORMATION

PRODUCED BY OECD

OECD information may take many forms. There are official documents: the transcripts or minutes of meetings of the Council and the committees, the votes taken, and the official

Information policy of OECD

Counci

Executive

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1

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SECRETARIAT

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Economics

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Revi eu Trade

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acts. There are working papers and discussion documents distributed to members in preparation for meetings, and there is information gathered from the member governments through surveys and statistical data transmitted on a regular basis and compiled and coordinated by the OECD Secretariat. There are also administrative documents: directories, policy statements, manuals, and the like. There are data banks and working documents of the departments in the Secretariat and in the autonomous bodies as well. The OECD does little primary research. Its role is to gather and standardize data, especially statistical data, and to analyze it. Member country cooperation is very important because most of the information gathered must come from the governments of member countries. Policy info~ation is usually gathered through questionnaires approved in advance by the representatives of member countries on the committee. Approximately 50 questionnaires each year are sent to member governments. Statistical data are supplied by member governments from their existing data banks. More and more these data come in electronic formats and the OECD is working toward online access to the computerized data banks of its member governments. The quality of OECD info~ation is only as good as the data that go into it. Derek Blades of the OECD Economics and Statistics Department has singled out timeliness, comparability, and reliability as the three primary elements in measuring the worth of international statistics [6]. Timeliness and accuracy are aided by the collection of data in electronic formats and by the relatively small number of countries and generally higher degree of development in the member countries. This is especially true when one compares OECD statistics to much larger and looser programs like those of the United Nations. Blades describes three aspects of comparability [7]. Conceptual comparability is aided by the detailed international standards on what data are collected and how they are to be counted. Institutional comparability is another problem that is not easily addressed. An example of the difficulty can be seen, for instance, in measuring the savings habits of households - different statistics will result if one country relies primarily on private retirement pensions and another relies on public pension plans. Country A, with private pensions, will appear to have very thrifty citizens; country B, with public pensions, will not. This is because contributions to private pensions are recorded as household savings, but social security contributions are recorded as government savings. Although in the end both kinds of savings work toward the same goal, the statistics will show considerable differences in saving habits of two countries [8]. Such national or institutional differences are unavoidable, but they nevertheless must be borne in mind when comparing data. The third aspect, statistical comparability, can be affected by the statistical resources of the member countries. “Considerable differences exist between countries in the quantity and quality of their basic statistics . . .” [9]. The larger countries tend to have more basic data of higher quality than do the smaller countries. Fu~hermore, the quality and quantity of data within a country can vary over time as different administrations put more or fewer resources into basic statistics programs, and focus programs at different economic and social sectors. A country in which fishing is an important industry and banking is not will probably have more and better basic statistics on fishing. Despite such caveats about comparability, OECD statistics enjoy a good reputation based on the degree of accuracy of the economic predictions that are based on these data. INFORMATION

FLOW

The OECD Council sets policy and the broad agenda while the committees devise projects to carry out Council objectives. A particular project may be initiated at the

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policy of OECD

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request of the Council, by a decision of the committee that will carry it out, or at the suggestion of another committee. In the last case, the request goes through the Executive Committee and is subject to its veto [lo]. All the member countries involved (a member may choose to abstain from a vote or not to participate in a project) must agree to the terms of the project. The work of information gathering, analysis, and writing may be done by experts brought in by the individual committees or named by member countries, but often it is done by the experts in the related directorates of the Secretariat. Their reports are referred back to the committees for approval and passed on up the line until they reach final approval by the Council. Having accepted and approved a report the Council may decide to make it public, but until it does, all information is considered restricted to the use of the OECD and its member governments. What has been described above is a general pattern of the information flow. There are, to be sure, variations. Some reports are done wholly within the Secretariat and “derestricted” on the authority of the Secretary General. The autonomous bodies operate somewhat independently. The IEA and NEA Boards have total responsibility for their reports, while CERI and the Development Centre operate on a mandate from the OECD Council, with some latitude in determining their information work and in deciding what to make public.

RESTRICTED

DOCUMENTS

All documents are restricted until they are unrestricted; that is, they remain classified until specific decisions are taken to release them. The classification scheme for documents names three categories: Con$dential documents are information or texts the unauthorized disclosure of which would seriously prejudice the interests of the Organisation or of any of its members; restricted documents are information or texts that should not be communicated except for offtcial purposes;for general distribution documents are information or texts that are neither confidential nor restricted [ 111.

As with all decisions, the final power to de-restrict lies with the Council, although it has been delegated to the Secretary General in many cases [ 121. Fewer than 20 percent of the reports published are Council de-restricted reports. The Council has given the Secretary General the authority (delegated to the Publications Service) to de-restrict reports of technical groups or consultants and publications arising from the general operating program (after consulting with the appropriate committees) [ 131. The Secretariat prepares lists of documents to be considered for release and gives them to the Council on a regular basis. The documents are usually de-restricted without discussion. However, any member can block release. Individual national missions can, and do, request de-restriction of documents. At times this has succeeded and at other times not. OECD rules require unanimous consent of the 24 member countries, so, if just one country refuses, the request is denied. It cannot be determined if there is any pattern in the denials for de-restriction because the proceedings of the Council meetings in which the discussion and votes take place are also restricted. The assumption is that the information might be either politically or economically damaging or embarrassing to the country or the regime that opposes de-restriction. Most documents on the internal workings of OECD are restricted. Minutes or transcripts of meetings will never be available to the public because their confidentiality is required by the very nature of the OECD. The annual budget is restricted, as are many decisions of Council. The organizational directories are restricted. It is hard to know just

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how many and what types of documents are restricted, because there are no publicly available lists of all documents produced against which to check. There is a list of the restricted documents stored on archival microfilm, but the list itself is confidential. Documents remain restricted for various reasons. The most cogent reason is that confidentiality is necessary to the diplomatic nature of the OECD and the delicate political and economic issues it discusses. Thorkil Kristensen, the first Secretary General of the OECD, explained in an introductory essay to the first OECD Observer: The certainty

that nothing will be published on these deliberations is the fundamental basis for obtaining significant results. In OECD delegates representing the governments of member countries have the possibility of speaking openly of their difficulties and problems, and they do so confident that nothing will be disclosed of what has been said and no abuse will be made of their frankness 1141.

Some of the secrecy stems from habit and bureaucratic procedure rather than from inherent need. It is easier to make one blanket rule that covers everything than to make subtle distinctions that might be open to interpretation. Of course, the rules on restriction were made before Freedom of Information and Government in the Sunshine became popular issues. In some of the member governments and societies there is still a strong presumption for government secrecy. It is not surprising that the OECD is slow to change in this practice. Many of the restrictions are well justified, but some seem unnecessary or even arbitrary. It is hard to understand why, for example, the organizational directories should be confidential documents, especially when “. . . all acts concerning appointments are considered as being made public, at the time of their adoption by the Council” [ 151. An example of unnecessary secrecy would be a recent incident where an American official spoke before a Council meeting and afterwards wanted to give the text of his speech to the press. He was prevented from doing so by the OECD prohibition on disclosure of Council proceedings. In order to circumvent the rule he changed a few insignificant words and released his speech. The Acts of Council are a more worrisome category of restricted information. Keeping them secret makes them seem suspect. Not all of the Acts of Council are restricted. Those that have been de-restricted have been published in various places, but they have not been drawn together except in the restricted document Acts of the Organisation (restricted because it contains documents in all three security classifications). The Council has de-restricted the Acts of the OEEC (the predecessor of OECD) up to 1954, so perhaps there is hope it will do the same someday for more recent Acts. Only finished work that has gone through the review process is released. Working papers, preliminary drafts, and discussion documents are not likely candidates for derestriction. This is a handicap for the researcher who wishes to study the evolution of a policy, but the OECD’s emphasis in providing public information is on sharing what it considers to be valuable information and not on providing the public with the means to study its workings. It is estimated that about half of the printed output of OECD (in number of pages) remains restricted. The Publications Service prints approximately 200,000 pages of documentation each year. Of these, 60,000 pages are part of the sales program; 40,000 pages are in free distribution; and the remaining 100,000 remain restricted. These figures do not include, of course, those reports, especially those of the autonomous bodies, that never are printed. An unknown quantity of documents are simply duplicated and distributed informally. There is no impetus to undertake a systematic de-classification of earlier restricted

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documents, although some requests to do so have been made by scholars. OECD’s argument is that the procedures for doing this are too cumbersome under their present rules. De-restriction is done on a case-by-case basis and therefore is time-consuming. The documents would have to be examined individually and taken to the Council for review. The Council members would then have to take them back to their respective governments for review before de-restriction could proceed. Some member countries have freedom of information laws that could conflict with these restrictions, but requests for restricted documents have so far been unsuccessful. In the United States only one such case has arisen and, before it reached the legal system, it was discovered that the document requested had been de-restricted. It seems likely that OECD documents would fall under the exceptions in the U.S. law for proprietary business information and confidential foreign government information [16]. In Australia, a freedom of information case did go to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 1984. An opposition member of Parliament asked for documentation on the OECD’s review of its annual Economic Survey of Australia. OECD was allowed to join the case as an interested party. The application was withdrawn before the hearing, but the Tribunal made an order prohibiting the disclosure of the documentation that had been submitted to it, effectively supporting the OECD’s position of keeping the documentation confidential [17]. The OECD in its information activities is caught between two conflicting governmental traditions. On the one hand, the older (and the diplomatic) tradition assumes that government needs privacy in order to operate effectively. On the other hand, the democratic tradition demands that the people know what government is doing. Despite initiatives to provide the public with information, the OECD’s mission virtually guarantees a preference for the former position. The public information function of OECD is decidedly secondary to the primary function of providing a forum for discussion among governments of coordinated policies on economic problems. The Council reviews and.gives tentative approval to the annual publications program from lists of potential publications submitted by the directorates. The program approved is tentative because not all the documents submitted are de-restricted by the Council or the Secretariat at the time they are considered for publication. There is always the possibility that publication will be delayed or canceled altogether. Furthermore, some of the reports may be merged with others when the subjects are related and it is deemed that the merged document will make a stronger publication. The Council approves the general program but the final decision on what to publish and how to publish it is made by the Publications Service on authority delegated by the Secretary General. This decision is based on several criteria outlined for the directorates in the Guidelines for Publication (a restricted document) published in 1981 by the Publications Service. The quality of the report is considered, both in content and style. The Policy and ~anusc~pt Unit of the ~blications Service reviews all reports submitted for publication. Reports may be rejected for publication because their data are no longer timely, or they may be rejected because they are not part of the work program of the OECD. A report done on the individual initiative of a staff member is less likely to get favorable consideration than a report that comes out of an approved program. Once the decisions about whether to publish have been made, the work comes before the ~blishing Decision Group, which is made up of the head of the Edito~a~Production Division of the Publications Service and representatives of the involved directorates. This Group makes decisions about the production values and marketing of the publication, decisions are based on the perceived value of the information, the quality of the publication, and the anticipated audience.

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Budget is not a primary criterion either in the initial decision to publish or in the decisions about how to publish. There is a budget for publications, but going over budget does not prevent publication, although it may delay it somewhat, nor does it determine the choice of typescript, graphics, paper, or binding. Each year 175 to 200 publications are added to the sales catalog (including issues of periodicals, statistics on magnetic tape, and statistics on microcomputer diskette). Sales copies account for about 70 percent of the priced publications (excluding restricted and administrative documentation); the other 30 percent of the priced publications are distributed as official or free copies. The official/free copies are subsidized by the organization; however, the Publications Service has a mandate from the OECD Council to recover the costs of production of sales publications. Until late 1986 it used a formula of three times the cost of production plus estimated postage. The formula was expected to account for all the costs of production - paper, typesetting, printing, binding, handling, accounting, marketing, mailing lists, and so on [18]. This formula proved to be insufficiently refined, so the Publications Service has adopted and is now phasing in a more complex formula that takes into account the total costs of production, except for the intellectual labor involved in creation, associated with publication. As a result of the mandate to make the sales program self-supporting, consumers can expect higher prices for OECD publications, especially periodicals, in 1988-1989. There will be a moderate rise for monographs, but a substantial increase for periodicals. Those periodicals that have numerous statistical tables, graphs, and charts (expensive to typeset) will show the greatest increase. The pricing policy is not rigid. A publication is not expected to recover costs if such expectation would make its price too high in relation to other similar products on the market. The average prices of OECD monographs fall somewhere between those of U.S. trade paperbacks and those of U.S. college books. In 1986, for example, the average prices for U.S. trade paperbacks in business, sociology/economics, and science (the fields most frequently covered by the OECD) were respectively: $18.17, $16.95, and $23.35 [19]. The average prices for U.S. college books (books reviewed in Choice) in the same fields were respectively: $30.62, $32.83, and $36.16 [20]. The average prices for OECD monographs in 1986 were $20.23 for books in business, economics, and social sciences and $20.78 for science books. The average price for OECD periodicals in 1986 was $69.11 compared to the U.S. average in business/economics periodicals of $47.15 [21]. If the large and detailed statistical compilations, Microtables: Annual Foreign Trade Statistics are excluded from the list of periodicals considered in the OECD average, it falls to $48.99. Most of the information products are high quality paperbacks or microfiche filmed from paper copy. A few titles, such as Annual Foreign Trade Statistics, are on computer output microfiche (COM). Some of the statistical data sets are available in electronic formats. Large statistical series, such as the Main Economic Indicators, can be acquired on magnetic tapes for mounting on mainframes. OECD was the first international organization to offer its statistical data on diskette. As of 1987 seven series were available on diskette: Quarterly National Accounts; Annual National Accounts: Main Aggregates; Economic Outlook; Interest Rates on International and Domestic Markets; External Debt Statistics; Geographical Distrbution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries; and Statistics on External Indebtedness. The diskettes run on IBM-compatible personal computers using

widely available software such as Lotus 1-2-3TM, VisicalcTM, SymphonyTM, and MultiplanTM. The use of optical disk technology for the large data sets is only at the preliminary stages of discussion. The Publications Service also prints and distributes the reports of the autonomous

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of the OECD, but it has somewhat less editorial control over them. The policies and criteria of the Guidelines are applied to the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation on the same basis as the directorates of the Secretariat. The Development Centre has, at least in the past, had a little more latitude. It has not had editorial standards as rigorous as those of the Publications Service, but this is changing. The Development Centre distributes free of charge many reports that are not otherwise published or considered publishable by the normal criteria for OECD publications. Some of these reports are distributed with standing orders by the Publications Service; most must be requested from the Development Centre. The ~blications Service acts more as a printing and distribution center for the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), two other autonomous bodies of OECD. The Guidelines are not applied to IEA and NEA publications. The sole responsibility for editorial review for content and style rests on these agencies. Decisions on what to publish and how to publish their reports are made by their respective Boards. The Publications Service also prints and sells the reports of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT), which is not an OECD body. The ~blications Service, however, exercises no control over ECMT publications. Some international organizations have used co-publication with commercial or academic publishers as a way of reducing their publication budgets and reaching a wider audience. The OECD has published very little in this way. The specialized nature and limited audience of their publications is given as a reason, but one can also surmise that the OECD is simply better organized than many international organizations to fulfill its own publishing needs. bodies

UNPUBLISHED

DOCUMENTS

It is a common practice of international organizations to distinguish between publications and documents. The former are sales items; the latter are distributed free of charge through various channels. Publications generally, but not always, have better production values; that is, more attention goes into their physical format - better graphics, typesetting, cover art, and sometimes hard binding. More importantly, publications are marketed, listed in catalogs, advertised, and distributed through standing orders. Documents, on the other hand, usually fall into the class of grey literature, with poor or no bibliographic control, a short period of availability, little or no publicity, and limited distribution. The OECD in this practice is no different from other international organizations. Reports may be denied publication for reasons other than quality or relevancy. The Publications Service or the originating agency may believe that there is no general interest in them. Others may have restrictions attached to them; for example, a report may be wholly or partially supported by a grant that specifies that it must be disseminated free of charge. This does not mean, however, that these reports simply disappear. Many are printed or otherwise duplicated by the agency that produced them and distributed to interested parties. A small number of documents are distributed free of charge to standing order customers. But aside from this limited automatic distribution to regular customers, documents are not widely disseminated because those who might use them do not necessarily know about them, and it is d~cult to find out what documents are available. When OECD documents show up in footnotes, it is usually too late for them still to be available. (In addition to the publications and documents there are also, of course, a vast number of restricted documents that are not available but that do occasionally show up in footnotes and bibliographies.) It is likely that not even the OECD knows precisely how many reports

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have been produced in its name. The figure of 200,000 pages a year of restricted and de-restricted reports represents only those reports that have gone through the Publications Service. There are undoubtedly many more that are mimeographed or duplicated outside the facilities of the Publications Service, particularly if one considers the various component autonomous bodies - CERI, IEA, NEA, and the Development Centre. DISSEMINATION

OF DOCUMENTS

The OECD does not directly subsidize the dissemination of info~ation except to its member governments, but it does make some effort to see that its information is available to a larger public. The two major avenues to this public are through the press and through the sales program. The press service of the OECD Secretariat issues frequent press briefings and press releases. Dissemination of info~ation to libraries is accomplished through the sales program rather than through a system of deposit. Member country governments receive as many copies of all documents, reports and publications (restricted and de-restricted) as they deem necessary. Documents are distributed to the people who participate in the meetings and to the agencies that request them. In the U.S. such documents are received by the OECD Document Library, which is attached to the Regional Political and Economic Affairs (RPE) desk of the Department of State. The OECD Document Library retains at least one copy of every document; it is the most comprehensive repository of OECD documents in the United States. The OECD Document Librarian maintains a master list of people and agencies to whom documents are to be distributed. The OECD Document Library receives 30 to 40 copies of the Annual Budget which is sent to virtually every agency that participates in OECD. A specialized report would be requested in smaller numbers and distributed only to those agencies that are directly involved in the committee discussing it. Access is limited to government personnel who have a need to know. Presumably this includes personnel under government contracts if they need to use the documents to fulfill their contracts. The kinds of precautions taken for national security classified documents (e.g., security clearances) are not used for OECD restricted documents, but nevertheless, restrictions are taken seriously. Agencies have received reprimands for leaving documents out and unguarded. OECD INFORMATION

FACILITIES

Sales publications and some de-restricted free reports are available through the OECD Information Centres located in Bonn; Washington, D.C.; and Tokyo and through the headquarters in Paris [22]. OECD publications are also sold in bookstores in 36 countries throughout the world [23]. Publications can be bought individually or through global or selective standing orders. The usual audience for OECD publications, other than govemment agencies, is research libraries and businesses. In the United States, approximately 120 libraries have global standing orders, and thus are the most likely source for researchers [24]. There is no depository system, such as those that exist for U.S. federal or U.N. documents. The Federal Reserve Library and the Library of Congress do receive OECD publications and documents free on deposit, but they do not constitute a system and there is no plan to create one. The Information Centres in Bonn, Tokyo, and Washington maintain libraries of OECD publications and provide limited reference service. There are three main OECD libraries in Paris: the library of the Development Centre, the IEA library and a central library that serves all the other parts of the organization. The

433

Information policy of OECD three libraries graphic tools.

are independent of one another In addition, 12 of the directorates

with separate

budgets,

staff,

and biblio-

or services have established small documentation units for their own convenience. These units depend on the central library for acquisitions and processing and they have almost no budget or personnel for documentation activities. The initiatives for improvement of the information apparatus of the OECD come from the professionals in the Secretariat, that is, those who work directly with the press, the public, and users of information in the organization. The librarians of the OECD are no exception to this rule. They have recognized a need to establish a strong network in order to move their services into the modern age of library automation. In 1986 a library committee was created. It meets monthly to discuss and reinforce cooperation among the various documentation units. As an office automation system is implemented throughout the OECD, the libraries will be able to communicate with each other more effectively. Already the central library is connected and in the near future will be able to send and receive information through the system. The libraries are also looking toward cooperative use of library software. Whether this will translate into a bibliographically linked system is still too far into the future to foretell. The central library was founded in 1948 in the days of the OEEC. It has approximately 100,000 books, 6,000 current periodical subscriptions, and a few thousand microfiches. Its primary subject coverage includes economics, political science, statistics, commerce, agriculture, industry, education, environment, technology, and related topics; the list of subjects mirrors the names of the directorates listed in Figure 2. There is no written collection development policy. Materials are bought on demand or are received on an exchange basis from the 24 member countries (the majority). Automation of the library is only at the beginning stages. It has an in-house software management system, AUTODOC, for its catalog and catalog by-products such as acquisitions lists, periodicals catalogs, and COM products. It does not yet have an online public access catalog. Public access is through a manual catalog using the OECD Macrothesaurus subject headings [25]. Circulation and acquisitions functions are not yet automated. Until early 1987 the central library was open to the general public. However, it now serves only the agents of the OECD and researchers who can justify its use. The library will provide interlibrary loan service. The archives are a separate service but are closely connected to the central library. The archiving service receives copies of all OECD documents and publications, both restricted and de-restricted. It then creates a bibliographic record of documents and publications in an AUTODOC file. This record includes a bibliographic description, key words from the OECD Macrothesaurus, and a summary. The publications are preserved on microfiche and maintained in the Micro Library, also not open to the general public. The archives, like the library, are looking toward new technologies for both management and storage of documents, but have not yet gone beyond the planning stage. The Development Centre Library, also located in Paris, has a collection of about 27,000 books and 850 periodicals covering the social and economic problems of developing countries. This library is used by Development Centre personnel and researchers in the Development Centre’s Visiting Fellows program. It is open to other researchers and university students a few days a week. Local bibliographic access to the collection is through a manual catalog, by author, title, subject and country, and through a computerized book catalog by terms from the OECD Macrothesaurus. The Development Centre has a Documentation Unit that provides specialized services on critical development problems. One of these is the Sahel Antenna, which has collected

434

D. GARNER

over 4,500 references to books, articles and documents on the Sahel drought. These documents provide the basis for the publication, Elements for a Bibliography of the Sahel Drought, updated annually [26]. Another service is a press clipping file of magazine and newspaper articles on developing countries, problems of development and inte~ation~ cooperation, and the activities of organizations devoted to development and international relations. The International Energy Agency Library serves the IEA Secretariat and committees. The focus of this library is on scientific, technical, and economic literature having to do with energy problems. BIBLIOGRAPHIC

ACCESS

Until recently, bibliographic access produced by the OECD itself was limited mainly to its sales publications. There is an annual sales catalog with quarterly updates and a newsletter, OECD Recent Publications, which is available through the Information Centres. The Micro Library has produced, at least since the early 1980s a list of all the titles in its collection. The complete list, of course, is restricted information, but three lists on microfiche of de-restricted sales publications, periodicals, and documents are available. The original purpose of these catalogs is as a sales reference tool. All of the titles listed are available on microfiche from the Micro Library for a minimal fee [27]. The Catalogue of ~icro~ches of English monographs lists, by year of publication and by title, monographs from 1980 back to OEEC publications of 1948. It also has an update on microfiche for 1981 and 1982 [28]. The catalog of documents in free distribution, Catalogue of Microfiches of English General Publications, covers the same time period [29]. The information on the lists is minimal and consists mainly of title, any personal author, series name (sometimes), and date of publication. The third catalog, Catalogue of ~icro~ches of Periodicals, lists periodical holdings in English and French [30]. Periodical titles are arranged alphabetically by the English title. The catalog is of great value to anyone tracing OECD periodicals because it lists the holdings and dates under each title change for a given periodical. The OECD Information Center in Washington recently received a 130-page computer printout, dated 5 June 1987, of free publications. The list, produced by the OECD Library, covers 1986 publications and will be updated quarterly on a continuing basis. The entries include document number, English and French title, personal and corporate authors, source, and key descriptive words. If this catalog is maintained and if a way could be found to make it more widely available, it would represent a great step forward in bibliographic access to elusive OECD reports. Bibliographic access to OECD publications in the United States is fairly good despite the lack of a comprehensive bibliography. Within a year of publication virtually all of the sales publications have cataloging copy on the MARC tapes, or on OCLC or RLIN databases. The hit rate is not as good for the documents, but cataloging copy usually can be found on at least one of the major bibliographic utilities for nearly everything that receives wide distribution in the United States. A problem remains for those documents that are not published or widely distributed. CONCLUSION The OECD is an organization of national governments, not of individual citizens. Its constituency is not the people but the governments in power in the member countries and

Information

policy

of OECD

435

the needs and wishes of that constituency are the primary concern. Because member countries are democracies, the power of the citizenry is not absent from the political pressures on the OECD, but it is at least one step removed. Bearing this in mind makes the OECD’s information policies more understandable. Although the OECD is not fully open with the public, neither is it unresponsive to the public’s need for information. On the contrary, it has established a fairly effective system to disseminate information. It is likely that nearly all of the reports that merit publication are published as a result of the review process and that those that are not are either not worthy or are deemed to be of limited interest. The OECD has recently shown a greater interest in providing bibliographic access to its documentation and, as it automates its information services, more can be expected. More widespread and timely bibliographic access to unpublished OECD literature is particularly desired. Present policies concerning the classification and restriction of documents are broad and undifferentiated. The present policy works for the convenience of the organization and against the interests of the researcher and the general public. Even though there is a need for confidentiality in much of the OECD’s work, it should be possible to distinguish those areas where secrecy is not necessary in order to limit the number of documents classified. Furthermore, as time passes the need for secrecy diminishes. Recognizing this, the OECD has opened some areas of OEEC documentation that were once classified. The procedures for de-classifying are cumbersome; they should be modified, particularly for the historical documents. Within the bounds of the Council’s policy, OECD staff are very forthcoming with information. They have made and continue to make improvements in the way information is delivered. Jean-Claude Paye, the current Secretary General of the OECD, defines the secretariat as “. . . a catalyst. Its role is not academic; nor does it have the authority to impose its ideas. Its power lies in its capacity for intellectual persuasion” [31]. The Secretariat can make significant advances in improving OECD’s public information functions, but in the end it is the Council that must make the fundamental changes. Given the OECD rule on consensus, it not likely that change will come very quickly.

NOTES 1. OECD: History, Aims, Structure (Paris: OECD, 1971), 8-10. 2. Article 7 of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, December 14, 1960. 3. Rule 18 of the Rules of Procedure of the Organisation (Paris: OECD, August 1986). 4. Article 6 of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, December 14, 1960. 5. Regulation 2, Duties, Srufj Manua/ ([Paris]: OECD, 1979) in Staff Regulations and St&' Rules of Selected International Organizations, Volume V (Washington, DC: World Bank Administrative Tribunal, 1983): 16. 6. Derek Blades, “International Statistics: An OECD View,” Business Economics 21 (July 1986): 37-42. 7. Blades, 38. 8. Blades, 38-9. 9. Blades, 38. 10. Rule 22 of the Rules of Procedure of the Organisution (Paris: OECD, August 1986). 11. Resolution of the Council concerning the classification of documents and security precautions, May 22, 1%2, [Cf. C/M(62)1l(Final), item 109a), b), and c)] in Appendix, Rules of Procedure of the Orgunisotion (Paris: OECD, August 1986), 33. 12. Resolution of Council, October 24, 1974 [C(74)133(Final)]. 13. 1987 Publications Programme, March 20, 1987. [C(87)50]. 14. Thorkil Kristensen, “The O.E.C.D. Observer,” OECD Observer 1 (November 15, 1%2): 3. 15. Cf. C/M(68)3(Final) item 34~ in Rules ofProcedure of the Orgunisation (Paris: OECD, August 1986), 33. 16. Freedom of Information Act, 5 CJSCA 552 (b) (4) and 5 USCA 552 (b) (1) (A).

436

D. GARNER

17. Information on this case comes from an unpublished letter of M. Jean-Claude Pit-is, Legal Counsel and Head of the Legal Directorate of the OECD, to the author. 18. J. J. Chems, Ojjiciul Publications: An Overview (Oxford: Pergamon, 1978):339-40. 19. Booker Annual ofLibrary und Book Trade Inj&nation 1987 (New York: Bowker, 1987): 444. 20. Bowker, 440-41. 2 I. Bowker, 435. 22. Addresses and telex are as follows: OECD Publications Service, 2, rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 Paris CEDEX 16, France, Telex 620 160 OCDE: OECD Publications & Information Centre, 4 Simrockstrasse. D-5300 Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany, Telex: 8 86300 BONN; OECD Publications & Information Centre, Landic Akasaka Building, 2-3-4 Akasaka Minato-Ku - Tokyo 107, Japan, Telex: 2423231 OECDTY J; OECD Publications & Information Centre, 2001 L Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 200364095, USA Telex: 440245 WASHINGTON D.C. 23. A current list of bookstores can be found in the most recent OECD Catalogue of’Pub/ications available free of charge from the Information Centres listed in note 22. 24. U.S. research libraries with general standing orders are: Arizona State University Library; Baruch College Library; Boston College School of Management Library; Boston Public Librarv; Boston Universitv Library; C.W. Post College Librarv; California State Library, Sacramento; California State University Library,~Fullerton; Califomya State University Library, Fresnb; California State University Library, Long Beach; California State University Library, Northridge; California State University Library, Sacramento; Claremont Colleges, Honnold Library; Cleveland State University Library; Columbia University Business Library; Cornell University Library; Dartmouth College, Baker Library; Duke University Library; East Carolina State University Library; Free Library of Philadelphia; Georgia State University Library; Georgetown University Library; Golden Gate University Library; Harvard University, Littauer Library; Haverford College Library; Illinois State Library; Illinois State University, Milner Library; Indiana University Library: Iowa State University Library; Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library; Lehigh University, Linderman Library; Los Angeles Public Library; Library of Congress; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries; Michigan State University Library; New York Public Library; New York State Library; New York University, Bobst Library; North Carolina State University, Hill Library; Northern Illinois University Library; Northwestern University Library; Old Dominion University Library; Ohio University Library; Oklahoma State University Library; Pace University Library; Pennsylvania State University Libraries; Portland State University Library; Princeton University Library; Purdue University Library; Rutgers University Library; San Diego State University, Love Library: Sangamon State University Library; Southern Illinois University, Morris Library: Stanford University Librarv; State University of New York Library, Albany; State University of New York Library, Binghamton; State University of New York Library,.Stony Brook: Syracuse University, Bird Library; Temple University, Paley Library; Texas A&M Library; Texas Tech University Library; Tulane University Library; University of Akron, Bierce Library; University of Arizona Library; University of California, General Library, Berkeley; University of California Library, Davis; University of California Library, Irvine; University of California, Research Library, Los Angeles; University of California Library, Riverside; University of California Library, San Diego; University of California Library, Santa Barbara; University of Chicago Library; University of Cincinnati Library; University of Colorado Library; University of Delaware Library; University of Denver, Penrose Library; University of Florida Library; University of Georgia Library: University of Hawaii Library; University of Houston Library; University of Idaho -Library; University of Illinois Library, Chicago; University of Illinois Library, Urbana-Champaign; University of Kansas Library; University of Maryland, McKeldin Library; University of Massachusetts Library; University of Miami Library; University of Michigan Library; University of Minnesota Library: University of Missouri Library; University of Nebraska Library; University of Nevada Library, Reno; University of New Mexico Library; University of New Orleans, Earl K. Long Library; University of North Carolina, Davis Library, Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina, Atkins Library, Charlotte; University of Notre Dame, Memorial Library; University of Oregon Library; University of Pennsylvania, Lippincott Library; University of Pittsburgh, Hillman Library; University of Rhode Island Library; University of Rochester Library; University of Santa Clara, Orradre Library; University of South Carolina, Thomas Cooper Library; University of Southern California, Doheny Library; University of Texas Library; University of Texas, LBJ School Library; University of Toledo Library; University of Utah Library; University of Virginia, Alderman Library; University of Washington Library: University of Wisconsin Library, Green Bay; University of Wisconsin, Memorial Library, Madison; University of Wisconsin, Polk Library, Oshkosh; University of Wisconsin Library, Whitewater: Vassar College Library; Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries; Virginia Polytechnic Institute Library; Washington State University, Social Science Library; Washington University Libraries; Wayne State University, Genera1 Library; West Virginia University Library; Williams College Library; and Wright State University. 25. The Macrothesaurus. 2nd edition, was last published by the OECD in 1978. The latest edition was published by the United Nations, Macrothesaurus for Injkvmation Processing in the Field of Economics and Socia! De~~elopment 3rd edition (New York: United Nations, 1985). 26. Elements jbr a Bibliography on the Sahel Drought. (Paris: OECD, 1976). Updated yearly; latest update is No. 10. 1986.

Information policy of OECD

437

27. Information on purchasing microfiche publications can be obtained by writing to the OECD Publications Service in Paris, see note 22. 28. Catalogue o~Micro~che~ o~~nglish monographs A vuiiable in the ,~ic~o-Lib~u~~ of OECD at the 3lst of.fu!~j 1981 (Paris: OECD, 1981). Ten fiches and a Supplement Updating of April 1983, 1 fiche. 29. Catalogue of Microfiches of English General Publications Available in the Micro-Library of OECD at the 30th of April 1983 (Paris: OECD, 1983). Two fiches. 30. Catalogue uf Micro~che~ of Periodicals Available in the micro-Libras ofOECD at the ist ofoctober I982 (Paris: OECD, 1982). Twelve fiches. 31. Jean-Claude Paye, OECD (Paris: OECD, 1985), 3.