THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

ned. This sum was to be spent over four years by which time
the Mont des Arts, it was believed, would be finished, and
the OIB in its new, expanded form settled within it. Ernest
Solvay, who became President of the IIB—OIB when Descamps
resigned in 1907 to head the new Ministry of Sciences and
Arts, promised to put up 50,000 francs as a start. Philippson,
following Solvay's lead, promised 10,000 francs. This
drew an enthusiastic letter from Solvay's secretary: «we are
enchanted. And the old cynical saying is right: to him whohas
will be.given*. Later in the year a further donation of
10,000 francs was received. («Congratulations from M. Solvay
and myself»). Many letters were sent out soliciting funds but
it is clear that the goal of 200,000 francs was not reached.
The King's support, referred to in the notice in La Chronique,
seems to have been limited to the acknowledgment of the receipt
of donations to the OIB by Royal Decree. In the final
analysis the Mont des Arts was a much delayed project and
eventually, in 1909 Otlet asked Philippson to permit his,com
tribution for the expansion of the OIB to be used to support
the formation of an International Microphotographic Section
in the IIB.
EXPANSION
During the period just before and just after 1905, the
OIB underwent considerable expansion. Of first importance
was probably the Collective Library of Learned Societies. It
came formally into being in April 1906 and was officially
opened by Baron Descamps, outgoing President of OIB, in
December 1907 by which time the number of participating
societies had grown from six to twenty-five. The objectives
of the Library were described as:
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To group the scattered libraries of scientific and corporate institutions
and associations as well as those of the [editorial] offices of periodicals,
to assume the administrative management of these libraries in a
manner to be determined in each case, to put appropriate locations
which will be heated, lit and accessible during most of the day, at
their disposal; to place the collections of each member institution
under a responsible administration charged with preserving them, cataloging
them, making them available for use within the library and
lending them outside it, but in no way interfering with the ownershipand
the free disposition of the works deposited by the member institutions;
to constitute by bringing different special libraries together inthis
way, a collective library which will progressively embrace the
different branches of encyclopedic knowledge, and which will be an
auxiliary to existing public libraries whose character is general; in
this way to put extensive collections of use for documentation work at
the disposal of the International Institute of Bibliography in exchange
for its supervisory care; at the same time to permit scientific associations
to be certain of their members' access to the information and
documentation sources of the Institute. 69