The Institute for Technical and Scientific Information of the Ministry os Metallurgy and Machine Industry (KGM MTTI) - the branch information centre for metallurgy and machine industry
Abstract
Since the introduction of the new system of economic management, the KGM MTTI has been working as a financially independent "branch aconomic institute". Since 1969 it has been licensed to conduct independent foreign trade activities in certain defined fields of information.
The Institute is carrying on wide-ranging technical and economic information work in the following branches of information services:
information science and the related methodological and network activities;
complex information and propaganda in the technical and economic field;
special library services, technical and economic data archives;
market research, trend check and control of technologlcal level;
technical and economic translations;
publishing and editorial activities, printing;
reprography, photodocumentation, technical photographic service;
commercial propaganda.
In the fields of information science, methodology and information network such complex organizational tasks have come into the foreground as the organization of libraries, of trade literature collection and of information unite within companies. The work of analysis tends to cover the demands, trends in development, and the possibilities of co-operation. In the educational field, ragular special refresher courses will be organised.
The scientific and technical information sims at helping the institute to solve its tasks in production and product improvement, in introducing and propagating new products and processes by means of special advisory services, consultations, exhibitions, films, scientific and propaganda publications. It is mainly in these services that the complexity of information: the combined use of literary, oral and audio-visual aids come into fall display.
A special library for technology, economy and information science, collections of trade literature, of non-published documents and of technical and economic data, records of research in progress in the branches, film archives and many-sided records of institutions and specialiats are serving as a basis for information work.
The processing of non-published documents and their presentation on documentation cards are in the centre of the documentation of special literature. Besides literature searches and thematic information services, evaluating and analysing compilations, review articles and informative studies have increased considerably over the past few years, in order to meet the actual needs both of the Ministry of Metallurgy and Machine Industry and those of the industrial companies.
In the field of marketing, there is a heavy demand for informatice technical and economic studies, which are meant to help the preparation of decision-making, and also for price analysis, export market researches, going as far down as the individual products, and the examination of competition. In this field, besides factographic information, prognostic analysis is also prepared in several cases.
The Institute's commercial propaganda activities tend to promote the exchange of goods with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. A remarkable result in this field is the agreement concluded with the ENERGOMASEXPORT Company, according to which a specialoffice has been set up within the Institute to propagate Soviet energetic equipments.
The special information services for managers and top leaders are to help their work by periodical publications and occasional information. The organization of another special group for the information of top leaders is under way. Its objective is to explore and then to meet the information needs of ministries in the first place. The continuous information needs of leaders are being met by KGM Rapid Information, Information on Industrial Policy, and by the series Actual Problems of Economic Management.
