Paul Otlet

Paul Otlet (1868 – 1944) was a Belgian bibliographer.

Life

Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet was born on August 23, 1868 in Brussels, Belgium. After secondary education in PAris and Brussels, he studied at the Catholic University of Leuven and the Free University of Brussels, he earned a law degree in 1890. Becoming dissatisfied he developed his interest in bibliography. His essay "Un peu de bibliographie" [Something about bibliography], written in 1892 laid out pans which he followed for the rest of his life.

In 1895 Otlet and Henri La Fontaine founded an International Institute for Bibliography which later became the International Institute for Documentation. He died on December 10, 1944 in Brussels.

Contributions

Otlet, supported by his wealthy second wife, Cato Van Nederhesselt, whom he married in 1912, was a tireless author, organizer, developer of bibliographical services, and peace activist. He is best known for his promotion of universal documentation and as co-founder and leader of the International Institute for Bibliography, later named the International Federation for Documentation.

Otlet founded numerous ambitious international organizations generally in collaboration with Henri LaFontaine.

Publications

Otlet wrote widely and published frequently. Many of his writings were published or reprinted in the IIB Publications series. For a list see Rayward, W. B. Bibliography of the works of Paul Otlet.

• Traité de documentation. [Treatise on documentation]. Bruxelles, Mundaneum, Palais Mondial, 1934. His best-known, encyclopedic work that summarized his ideas.
• Monde, essai d'universalisme. [World: Essay on universalism]. Bruxelles, Mundaneum, 1935. A theoretic work that complements his Traité de documentation.
• Otlet, Paul, International Organization and Dissemination of Knowledge: Selected Essays. Translated and edited by W. Boyd Rayward. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1990. ISBN 0-444-88678-8. A good selection of Otlet's writings, carefully translated and annotated by his biographer.
• "Un peu de bibliographie." Palais, Organe des Conférences du jeune barreau de Belgique 1891-1892: 254-271. This short early paper outlined his life's work. An English translation "Something about Bibliography" is in International Organization and Dissemination of Knowledge: Selected Essays, pp. 11-24.

Further reading

• "Paul Otlet" Wikipedia [1]
• Rayward, W. Boyd. The Universe of Information: the Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and international Organization. FID Publication 520. Moscow: International Federation for Documentation by the All-Union Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI), 1975. A detailed well-documented account.
• Levie, Françoise. The Man who Wanted to Classify the World: From the Index Card to the World City: The Visionary Life of a Belgian Utopian, Paul Otlet (1968-1944). Brussels: Sofidoc, 2002. Documentary film.
• Levie, Françoise. L'Homme qui voulait classer le monde: Paul Otlet et le Mundaneum. [The man wanted to classify the world: Paul Otlet and the Mundaneum]. Brussels: Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2006. ISBN 2-87449-022-9. Numerous illustrations.
• Wright, Alex. Cataloguing the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age. Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-19-993141-5. A readable biography.

Papers

The Mundaneum in Mons, Belgium, houses 6 kilometers of archived resources by and about Otlet, his associates, and their activities. [2]