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.

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: its transformation into an international, federated organization; the transfer of its headquarters from Brussels in Belgium to The Hague in the Netherlands; successive name changes to International Institute for Documentation in 1931, then International Federation for Documentation in 1938; and his taking administrative responsability away from Paul Otlet.

He joined the Dutch patent office in 1929 and retired as Vice-president in 1958.

Co-founder and director of the Dutch National Institute for Management (NIVE) in which he was active for 31 years.

President of the Netherlands Standards Institute (HCNN).

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

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.

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).
• [Special issue on Frits Donker Duyvia]. Revue de la documentation 21, no. 1 (1954).
• "Frits Donker Duyvis," Aslib Proceedings 13, no. 8,(August 1961): 195-196. Obituary. [1]
• 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