THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

The OIB proposed to fill this need in the fields of technical
and industrial information. Its service of technical documentation
would be based, it was announced, on a bibliographic
repertory, a union catalogue of technical works in Belgian
libraries, a repertory of patents, a permanent special Belgian
repertory in relation to industry and production, a collection
of photographs and other illustrative material, and the publication
of a documentary periodical. 83
The impetus for this service derived from the conclusions
of the World Congress on Economic Expansion at Mons.
There was nothing new about it in that what was proposed
was already fully part of the OIB's general program.
A. Louis Vermandel, who was collaborating with the OIB
already in the preparation of the Index de la presse technique
or Bibliographia Technica and who had devised the patent
classification used by the OIB, agreed to direct the new service
for technical information. In a contemporary sketch of the
OIB's locations a Service for Technical Documentation is
shown as set up adjacent to the Collective Library. 84 The service
did not prosper and an «appeal to engineers, industrial
people and technicians» was issued in 1911 calling for increased
support. On the model of the other auxiliary institutes
within the OIB—IIB, it was now called the International
Office of Technical Documentation. 85
In 1904 Otlet had been invited by the International Congress
of the Press to explore the idea of an International
Newspaper Museum in order to see if the OIB might help in
its promotion. In 1907, he began systematically to investigate
ways of setting up such a museum. He was then Vice-President
of the Belgian Periodical Press Association (its President
in 1908). Late in 1907 he met with representatives of
the Newspaper Collectors Group (Cercle des Collectionneurs
des Journaux) and of other interested societies. A tentative
program and statutes were drawn up for the new Museum:
Program: to ogranise at Brussels under the patronage of the Belgian
government and the City of Brussels in connection with the collections
of the IIB and paralleling those of the Museum of the Book
[Musee du Livre ] an International Newspaper Museum dedicated to
the documentation of newspapers in all forms, and to the study and
diffusion of matters connected thereto;
To establish with the help of particular collectors a collection of specimens
and a Universal Bibliographic Repertory of the Press (newspapers,
periodicals, bulletins, periodicals of societies);
To form a 'library of works related to the Press.
The statutes provided for the administration of the new Museum
by a Committee of ten members.
. .. the interior organisation of the Museum is attached to the organisation
of the IIB. Its collections, though autonomous, are destined to
remain joined to the other collections grouped at the Institute. In case
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