Frits Donker Duyvis

Frits Donker Duyvis was born on April 30, 1894 at Semarang, Java, Indonesia, and died in Wassenaar, Netherlands, 9th July, 1961. He studied chemical engineering, worked in the Dutch patent office, and became an influential figure in documentation, administrative efficiency, and standards development.

Life

Donker Duyvis graduated in chemical engineering from the Technological University, Delft, in chemical engineering in 1918. He was employed at the Netherlands Patent Office from 1918 to 1920 and then again from 1929 to 1959, serving as as President in 1944-45 and Vice-President 1947-1959. From 1920 to 1929 he was employed by the Rijksnijverheidsdienst which was concerned with the dissemination of technical information to light industries.

In 1932 he married P. G. L. Weber. They had a son, Hans.

Works

Donker Duyvis was particularly important for his role in the development of the International Institute for Bibliography founded by Paul Otlet and Henri LaFontaine in 1895 in Brussels. Donker Duyvis first had contact with them in 1920 and shared their aspirations. From 1928 until 1959 he was General Secretary of the Institute, which changed its name to International Institute for Documentation in 1931, then International Federation for Documentation in 1938. Donker Duyvis was influential in its transformation into a federated international organization, the transfer of its headquarters from Brussels in Belgium to The Hague in the Netherlands, and taking administrative responsibility away from Paul Otlet.

In 1920, in his capacity as secretary of the Netherlands Provisional Council for Documentation, Donker Duyvis obtained permission from Paul Otlet to publish a French edition of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) in the Netherlands. Work on a new edition began in 1923 under the auspices of the Commission de la Classificiation Decimale, with Donker Duyvis as secretary. Published in parts 1927-1933, this was the master version of the IDC until 1993. [1] Donker Duyvis was primarily responsible for sections 5 (Mathematics. Natural Sciences) and 6 (Applied Sciences. Medicine, Technology). He was also editor-in-chief of the Institute's journal Review of Documentation.

Donker Duyvis was instrumental in the establishment in 1921 of the Nederlandsch Instituut voor Documentatie en Registratuur (NIDER. Netherlands Institute for Documentation and Filing) and remained active in it.

From 1929 to 1930 he was Director of the Nederlands Instituut voor Efficiency (NIVE, Dutch National Institute for Management) and remained active in it for 31 years.

Publications

Coblans, H.F. "Donker Duyvis: A Bibliography" in F. Donker Duyvis: His Life and Work. NIDER Publication series 2, no 45. (1964), 65-80. The Hague, The Netherlands: NIDER. (p. 65-80). An earlier list is in Donker Duyvis, F. "Bibliographie des travaux de F. Donker Duyvis relatifs à documentation." Revue de la documentation 21, no. 1 (1954): 13-15. Part of a special issue on Donker Duyvis.

• "International Federation for Documentation," Journal of Documentary Reproduction 3 (September 1940): 176-90.
• "Standardisation as a tool of scientific management." Library Trends (Jan 1954): 410-427.

Honor

Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw. (Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.)

Further reading

• F. Donker Duyvis: His life and work. NIDER Publication series 2, no 45. (1964). The Hague, The Netherlands: NIDER. Contents: Clason, W.E. The life of Frits Donker Duyvis.--Brummel, L. Confrontation of libraries and documentation.--Lorphèvre, G. Donker Duyvis et la classification décimale universelle.--Manders, J.H.M. Donker Duyvis and the Patent Office.--Michailov, A.I. Donker Duyvis' contribution to the progress of scientific information and documentation.--Voorhoeve, N.A.J.F. Donker Duyvis and standardization.--Zuuren, P. van Donker Duyvis and the NIVE.--Coblans, H.F. Donker Duyvis: a bibliography (p. 65-80).
• "Frits Donker Duyvis," Aslib Proceedings 13, no. 8,(August 1961): 195-196. Obituary. [2]
• [Special issue on Frits Donker Duyvia]. Revue de la documentation 21, no. 1 (1954).
• Ranganathan S. R. "Sayers and Donker Duyvis: Theory and maintenance of library classification." Annals of Library Science 8, no. 3 (1961): 85-99.
• Rayward, W. Boyd. The Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and Information FID 520. Moscow: VINITI for FID.
• Dutta, Bidyarthi. "Revisiting Duyvis: A Chemical Engineer’s Zeal to Organize Knowledge." SRELS Journal of Information Management 55, no. 1 (April 2018). DOI:10.17821/srels/2018/v55i1/116190