Since it was founded in 1952, the International Council of Scientific Unions Abstracting Board (ICSU AB) has convened at least once a year, a general assembly or full board meeting held in different cities in the world. This is the first publication of the proceedings of the meeting. It not only includes reports on the activities of the Board, its committees and working groups, but also progress reports from members and from specially invited observers. Session I describes the activities of the ICSU AB. Session II covers the proposed program for future work of the ICSU AB. Session III gives reports from member services and member unions of the ICSU AB. Finally, session IV contains reports from associate members and observers. This comprehensive publication gives some insight on the many ICSU AB activities and of the new developments and services to meet the information needs of scientists and technologists. The review, summary and conclusions of the meeting are appended. (NH)