O Sistema Nacional de Informação Científica e Tecnológica (SNICT)

Abstract

The establishment of a national system for collection, treatment and dissemination of technological and scientific information, as indispensable tool for furthering the social and economical development of the country, has been the object of specific governmental directives, such as the Metas e Bases para a Ação do Governo, of September 1970, and the First National Plan of Economic and Social Development, of 1971. The National System of Scientific and Technological Information, created by the First National Development Plan (1971), establishes that the main components of the system will be the subsystems of scientific information, free industrial technological information, patented technological information, information on infrastructure and services, agricultural information, and collection and dissemination of information from abroad. The organization of the SNICT was at first the object of a report prepared by a subgroup created at the Ministry for Planning. This report as well as other documents (especially the one prepared by a Unesco expert) were examined by a working group established at the National Research Council. The result of these groups’ work is laid down in a document called Basic directives for the implementation of a national system of scientific and technological information. This article examines the evolution of the system, since its inception in 1970, till the final version' of the Directives, in May 1973, and compares the two official texts that will provide the elements for the legal instrument establishing the SNICT.