Interview Dusoulier (2000) Rayward/Organizations

Interview with Nathalie Dusoulier by W. Boyd Rayward in 2000

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Interview with Nathalie Dusoulier by W. Boyd Rayward in 2000

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Conversation on Assorted Organizations

Rayward

Discussions about Euronet-Diane [Direct Information Access Network for Europe] began in the early 1970s, too, I think.

Dusoulier

It began after the resolution of the Council of Ministers in 1971 to create the

European network. There was a committee, Comité Internationale pour la Documentation Scientifique et Technique, CIDST. We had a meeting of this committee almost every week. I was one of the French representatives; Jacques Michel was the other one. First, it was Jacques Delors; and then Jacques Michel. We tried to prepare a European information network. Then there were a lot of groups in every field—in medicine, in metallurgy, with Georges Anderla, who was the director at that time. I still see him.

[END OF TAPE, SIDE 2]

Dusoulier

We were trying to implement this European network at a political level to create

relationships between the countries. This was for the countries to organize and to cooperate better in different fields, and see if we could exchange information, set up databases, and control what the commission was doing. In fact, they were working in medicine, agriculture, and metallurgy. They took a lot of time. I think we have set up a kind of common European atmosphere to do that. But it was really political. We were not doing practical things; we were just discussing at political levels what the commission was trying to do. We were also working with automatic translations. An American system was implemented in the commission and we tried to adapt it. I don’t think we have achieved anything important, apart from the creation of this European group.

ICSU AB’s collaborations with international organizations

Rayward

You were also involved with the ICSU AB early on. Have you continued to be involved?

Dusoulier

I am an honorary fellow, but I don’t go to the meetings very much anymore. [laughter] I have left the ICSU AB, more or less. I still attended some NFAIS [National Federation of Abstracting and Indexing Societies] meetings, but more to meet old friends like Ed Kennedy and Dale [B. Baker] and so on. This year, in fact, I didn’t go because I was ill.

Rayward

So, tell me your impressions of ICSU AB and what it’s been able to achieve. Is it just essentially a forum for discussion and debate?

Dusoulier

No. At the beginning, ICSU AB was a family, and in fact, it still is. Don’t forget, in the 1960s, there were very few scientific information centers. We were getting together maybe ten or fifteen people. We were the pioneers, people like Dale Baker and Phyllis Parkins. Wiederman from Germany. Sorokin from Russia. We were all trying to have the world recognize that scientific information is something; it’s a profession, it’s work, it’s a job.

We did that quite successfully all together because we really were like a family, and we discussed everything. There was no competition. The competition started maybe a little bit later. My Miles-Conrad lecture at NFAIS gives the atmosphere of the thinking at that time (4).

Rayward

Dusoulier