THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

These suggestions were received with applause and the Congress
unanimously agreed on the text of a resolution submitted by
the IIB and introduced by Otlet. It called for a permanent
International Congress of Bibliography and Documentation to
meet for the first time in ;1910. The IIB was charged with its
organisation. Moreover, the Conference requested that the draft
statutes for the International Documentary Union drawn up by
the IIB be submitted to the Belgian government for transmittal
to other governments.
The government acted promptly. Thirty five countries were
informed of the projected union and were sent drafts of the statutes
proposed for it. Slowly the replies trickled in to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, were sent on to the Ministry of Sciences
and Arts and thence to Otlet. In England the matter was referred
to the British Museum. The Directors informed the Belgian
diplomatic officials in London «the employees of their library
would not be able to take an active part in the work of the
projected union». They offered sympathy." France was unable
«at present to envisage its participation*. Cuba was also unable
to see its way clear. Switzerland, on the advice of its national
library, decided bluntly not to participate. The proposals
were seriously received and put under close study in Holland.
Persia agreed to participate; Denmark would do all it could;
Costa Rica, Salvador, and Panama acknowledged the receipt of
the Belgian government's proposal; Argentina agreed in principle.
In America, the American Library Association's council
unanimously recommended that it unite with the IIB in requesting
the U. S. Government to send a delegate to the 1910 conference.
The tenor of the replies was clear and must have been
disappointing for Otlet, La Fontaine, and, of course, Cyrille
Van Overbergh. Nevertheless, plans went ahead for the 1910
conference unchecked, though the diplomatic congress to create
an International Documentary Union receded into the background
for the time being.
FOOTNOTES
1. Otlet to Lameere, 18 December 4901, Dossier No. 192, 192a, «Bulletin
de !'IIB», Mundaneum. Lameere, 1872—1901, achieved swift eminence
as an historian and innovator in extension work at the University de
Bruxelles. He collaborated with Sury on a paper, «Ecoles du livre et
la creation d'une ecole du livre a Bruxelles» read at the 2nd IIB Conference
in 1897.
i2. Organisation des Instituts Iriternationaux de Bibliographies, IIB Bulletin,
VI (1901), 174—78.
3. «Rapport sur la situation et 1'etat des travaux...au 31 er > Decembre
l'903», IIB Bulletin, VIII '(1903), 270.
4. Louis Masure, Rapport sur la situation et les travaux pour Vannee 1912
(Bruxelles: IIB, 1913), p. 31.
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