University Times

Finding international affairs organizations and specialists world-wide will soon be much easier with the help of a new effort at Pitt's University Center for International Studies (UCIS). A two-year, $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation will enable UCIS to create a World Wide Web database interface that includes 3,500 detailed entries on institutions active in international affairs and to expand the database's scope and size. The database originally was developed by ACCESS, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., specializing in international affairs information services. It includes detailed contact information and can be searched by country, keyword and specialty.

"This project offers great potential for integrating strengths from all of UCIS's component centers," said Wolfgang Schlör, assistant director for academic affairs at UCIS and principal investigator of the database project. "By using area, language and international contacts throughout UCIS, we will be able to develop this database into a resource which benefits the international community world-wide." Once this service is established, there will be no charge for its use. The on-line database can be accessed on the UCIS web site: www.ucis.pitt.edu.