Abstract
Unesco, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1986, has been involved in various kinds of activities, including bibliographic activities (B.A., hereafter). The author intends, through a historical overview of Unesco's early days (1946-1950), to determine the origin of its B.A., how it developed, and what its significance is for those of us engaged in Library and Information Science today. According to the author，Unesco's B.A., had two aspects: namely, “the B.A. in a narrower sense”, which was to provide access to materials by using a bibliography, and “the B.A. in a broader sense”, which was to establish an efficient means for the coordination of the B.A. in a narrower sense, both inside and outside Unesco. The meaning of Unesco's B.A. in a broader sense was that it could be evaluated as an efficient means for realizing the sprit of the Constitution of Unesco, or world peace. And this implies that it is important for us to ask ourselves the question “what purpose does information or knowledge serve ?”.
Unesco's B.A. in the first five years did not develop sufficiently, because of the immediate needs for reconstruction after W.W.II. However, it is possible to point out that the basic principle of Unesco's B.A. was laid down, and that the guidelines for future development were clearly presented in this period.
