Herbert Haviland Field: Difference between revisions

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Herbert Haviland Field (1868-1921), an American zoologist, founded the Concilium Bibliographicum.

Life

Herbert Haviland Field was born in Brooklyn on April 25, 1868. He studied Zoology at Harvard University and earned a PhD in 1893. He then traveled to Europe for further studies. Committed to social idealism and international peace, he dedicated himself to improving bibliographical access to biological literature and founded the Concilium Bibliographicum in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1895. [1]

World War I cut the Concilium Bibliographicum off from sources and customers, so Field spent the war working for the Quaker’s relief agency in Europe. He also worked as an intelligence asset for the United States under Allen Dulles who later headed the Central Intelligence Agency. . He died on April 4, 1921, in Zurich.

Contributions

Field created the Concilium Bibliographicum, hich was initially financed from personal and family funds. He aimed at completeness of coverage in all languages, precise classification using the Universal Decimal Classification, but did not include abstracts. Card files were copied and mailed to subscribers. Although he was unable to make his service financially self-sustaining, by 1903 some 13,000,000 cards had been sent to over 600 subscribers. The Concilium Bibliographicum struggled after Field's death and the impact of World War II led to its termination. [2]

Field collaborated with Paul Otlet at theInternational Institute for Bibliography in Brussels and helped to develop the Zoology section of the Universal Decimal Classification.

After World War I, Field aided the new League of Nations’ efforts to rebuild the world’s science information systems.

Publications

Papers

Hoover Institution Library and Archives (Stanford, CA). Diary and reports relating to political and economic conditions in Bavaria. [7]

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+'''Herbert Haviland Field''' (1868-1921), an American zoologist, founded the Concilium Bibliographicum.
 [[File:Field.jpg|thumb|Herbert Haviland Field]]
-Herbert Haviland Field (1868-1921) founded and operated one of the largest science information services in the early twentieth century, the Concilium Bibliographicum. He also undertook intelligence work for Allen Dulles during the First World War.
 == Life ==
-Born in Brooklyn on April 25, 1868, the same year as his rival and collaborator Paul Otlet. Herbert Field was a gifted zoologist and a Quaker idealist. An early recipient of a Harvard Ph.D he also received French and German doctoral degrees. Committed to social idealism and international peace, he dedicated himself to improving bibliographical access to biological literature. He founded the Concilium Bibliographicum in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1895, the same year Paul Otlet and Henri LaFontaine founded the International Institute for Bibliography in Brussels, Belgium.
+'''Herbert Haviland Field''' was born in Brooklyn on April 25, 1868. He studied Zoology at Harvard University and earned a PhD in 1893. He then traveled to Europe for further studies. Committed to social idealism and international peace, he dedicated himself to improving bibliographical access to biological literature and founded the Concilium Bibliographicum in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1895. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concilium_Bibliographicum]
-Herbert Field married Nina Eschwege, a British woman of German descent, and they had four children. Two of their children (Noel and Hermann) became famous for their connections with Communist espionage activity and for being kidnapped by Soviet intelligence in 1949. They were held captive for some five years as they were used as sources for the bloody purges in the Soviet bloc.
+World War I cut the Concilium Bibliographicum off from sources and customers, so Field spent the war working for the Quaker’s relief agency in Europe. He also worked as an intelligence asset for the United States under Allen Dulles who later headed the Central Intelligence Agency. . He died on April 4, 1921, in Zurich.
-At the Concilium Bibliographicum, initially financed from personal and family funds, Field aimed at completeness of coverage in all languages, precise classification using the Universal Decimal Classification, card files, but no abstracts, which were copied and mailed to subscribers. Although he was unable to make his service financially self-sustaining, by 1903 some 13,000,000 cards had been sent to over 600 subscribers.
+== Contributions ==
+Field created the Concilium Bibliographicum, hich was initially financed from personal and family funds. He aimed at completeness of coverage in all languages, precise classification using the Universal Decimal Classification, but did not include abstracts. Card files were copied and mailed to subscribers. Although he was unable to make his service financially self-sustaining, by 1903 some 13,000,000 cards had been sent to over 600 subscribers. The Concilium Bibliographicum struggled after Field's death and the impact of World War II led to its termination. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concilium_Bibliographicum]
-Field died of influenza on April 04, 1921, in Zurich, Switzerland. The Concilium Bibliographicum continued with great difficulties until it closed in 1940 amid wartime difficulties. Both it and Field were almost completely forgotten.
+Field collaborated with Paul Otlet at theInternational Institute for Bibliography in Brussels and helped to develop the Zoology section of the Universal Decimal Classification.
-See also Concilium Bibliographicum.
+After World War I, Field aided the new League of Nations’ efforts to rebuild the world’s science information systems.
-===== Source =====
+== Publications ==
-Colin B. Burke. (2014). ''Information and intrigue: From index cards to Dewey Decimals to Alger Hiss''. MIT Press.
-Additional sources are listed on Colin Burke’s website <nowiki>http://userpages.umbc.edu/~burke/</nowiki>
-with an extensive bibliography at <nowiki>http://userpages.umbc.edu/~burke/fieldbib716pdf.pdf</nowiki>
+== Further reading ==
+*Colin B. Burke. ''Information and intrigue: From index cards to Dewey Decimals to Alger Hiss''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014. A detailed biography. Burke provides additional resources on his website [http://userpages.umbc.edu/~burke/] including and extensive bibliography [http://userpages.umbc.edu/~burke/fieldbib716pdf.pdf]
-== Contributions ==
+*Kupper, Patrick. "'Verschollen in den Alpen': Herbert Haviland Fields bibliografische Reform". ['Lost in the Alps': Herbert Haviland Field's bibliographic reform]. In: Kupper, Patrick; Schär, Bernhard C. (eds.). ''Die Naturforschenden: Auf der Suche nach Wissen über die Schweiz und die Welt 1800–2015''. Baden, Switzerland: Hier und Jetzt, 2015, pp. 103–119.
-Concilium Bibliographicum and Intelligence work for World War 1.
+*Burke, Colin B. & M. K. Buckland. "Herbert Haviland Field (1868–1921): Bibliographer of Zoology." ''Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology'' 42, no 6 (2016): 10-14. [https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bul2.2016.1720420605]
+*Buckland, Michael K. & C. B. Burke. "Precise zoological information: The Concilium Bibliographicum". ''Bulletin of the Association for Information Science and Technology'' 42, no 6 (2016): 15–19. [https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bul2.2016.1720420606]
-== Selected Publications ==
+*Rayward, W. B. ''The universe of information: The work of Paul Otlet for documentation and international organisation''. Moscow: FID. (FID 520)
 == Papers ==
-'''LOCATION #1:''' Hoover Institution Library and Archives (Stanford, CA)
+*Hoover Institution Library and Archives (Stanford, CA). Diary and reports relating to political and economic conditions in Bavaria. [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0m3nd5jn/entire_text/]
-'''PAPERS DATES:''' 1919
-'''SIZE:''' 1 folder (0.1 Linear Feet)
-'''INCLUDES:''' Diary and reports relating to political and economic conditions in Bavaria
-'''FINDING AID:''' https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0m3nd5jn/entire_text/
-'''SOURCE:''' Online Archive of California