THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

that our organisation which has taken on a permanent character, the
Union of International Associations that we have ratified by this
congress, will provide us soon with another occasion for meeting in
the same conditions as to-day, with the same desire for progress,
with the same lack of any preoccupation with personal or national
pride. 29
Thus emerged from the World Congress of International Associations
a Union of International Associations domiciled in
Brussels at the Central Office of International Institutions.
Otlet had a particular interest in the International Congress
of the Administrative Sciences which was held in July.
He regarded its work as primarily documentary and by far
the greatest number of resolutions taken at the Congress dealt
-with documentation. The Congress created a permanent
•committee to organise future congresses and to collect documents
relevant to administrative science and organise them
for use. It was resolved that «all the theoretical and practical
knowledge relating to general documentation should be brought
together and co-ordinated;*, that «the principles and methods
of administrative documentation should be the subject
of courses and of introductory lectures», and that «There should
be a general method for administrative documentation.
This method should embrace the various operations to which
documents are submitted (creation, conservation, classification,
communication, publication, retirement, transferral to archival
depots)». The congress also resolved that a central office
for administrative documentation should be created to
study all these matters, form a library, compile an international
bibliography on administration, and institute a museum.
It also resolved to participate in the work of the Central
•Office of International Institutions and any further congresses
organised by it. 30
At the closing banquet, the President of the Congress raised
the question of the International Museum of which the exhibits
for the International Congress of Administrative Sciences
formed such a large part. He urged that «measures should
be taken to ensure that the necessary locations should be
provided for this museum» and he addressed himself directly to
the Mayor of Brussels, commending the Museum to him.
A plan was put afoot immediately to secure permanently one
of the Exposition buildings for the use of an International
Museum around which, it was suggested, could be organised
«the various permanent institutions and services that a number of
the congress held in Brussels in 1910 have created as well as
international bodies having their headquarters in Brussels
previously*. At the International Congress of Photography,
drawing to a close at about the same time, General Sebert
pledged the support of the International Union of Photography
for this venture.
183