THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

means possible, the different elements of modern society, the
great laws which regulate the social organism, the goals of its activity,
the surest means of attaining them — this idea was brought to
birth by the international associations. For the last twenty years
every World Fair has had its exposition of social economy and each
has ... made apparent to the people that which is known to the few:
the action of impalpable forces in the scattered world.
This kind of exposition had been held at Liege in 1905 and
•would again be held in an exposition planned for Brussels
in 1910. Otlet and Van Overbergh emphasised the ease with
which the necessary documentation for the Museum could be
collected by government departments and from the international
associations increasingly making their home in Brussels. 67
This document is of particular interest because it foreshadows
the great museum Otlet actually set about organising
at the 1910 Brussels Exposition and which figured largely in
his thoughts thereafter. Indeed, the Congress of Mons may be
considered as marking an important step in the evolution of
'Otlet's thought. As a result of its deliberations and the subsequent
Mont des Arts projet, Otlet became concerned with
ideas of how to extend the basic organisation underlying his
work. He was awakened to the notion of Museum as essentially
documentary and he was stimulated to begin considering
the possibilities of participation afforded by the international
associations whose headquarters seemed to be mushrooming
in Brussels. That the OIB—IIB could become an important
national information and documentation service, he was convinced.
It could also become the centre of international documentary
organisation. The prospect of the extension of the
OIB—IIB in the Mont des Arts, of its being given an official,
above all international character through the creation of a
documentary union of governments, and of its introducing an
extensive economic and technical information service, led
Otlet to attempt to find additional funds for it.
As a notice in the newspaper, La Chronique, observed:
The resolutions of the Congress of World Expansion are being put
into effect one after another. One of the immediately practical ones
consists of the organisation at Brussels of an International Institute
of Documentation centralising all information in economic, technical
and social matters. To this end it is proposed to now give new development
to the International Office of Bibliography which is directed
by a Commission presided over by Baron Descamps and which possesses
important collections. The Office will be installed in the Mont des
Arts and will enter into relations with different international institutions
existing in Brussels and abroad. This vast project is vigorously
encouraged by the King. 68
A Patronage Committee, the newspaper went on to inform its
readers, was being set up and the financiers, Ernest Solvay
and Franz Philippson were to be part of it. A sum of 200,000
francs was decided as necessary to develop the OIB as plan-
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