THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

he was led to envision, partly under the influence of Picard,
an historical sociology in which the «real image» of society
was law. At Paris he determined to embark on the enormous
work of synthesis he had been contemplating, a universal
history.
One of the last tasks he completed before leaving Brussels
was to put his botanical and geologic specimens and his
papers in order. Classifying and reclassifying his papers was
something he had been in the habit of doing since he was
fifteen. As a boy he had given much thought to the problem
of how to study, or had, at least, listened attentively to his
tutors. He regularly took notes:
In taking notes from authors one has the incontestable advantage of
making a compendium; that is to say, a small abridged treatise
which contains useful passages for one's own particular use... To gain
time, instead of immediately developing a thought that one has read,
one simply makes a note of it on a piece of paper which is put in a
folder. On Saturday, for example, these papers can be taken up one
by one for classification and also for development if this is necessary...
Rather than classifying the loose leaves of the same format each week,
one can write all the subjects in the same exercise book, taking care
to give a whole page and its verso to each new subject. Once the
notebook is filled, the leaves can be torn out and classified. However,
lots of things are difficult to classify and these one gathers together
ad hoc in a notebook without recopying them.
Otlet's first classifications were simple dispositions of his
notes into two main categories and a number of diverse subcategories.
He listed them, for example as:
Material — memoranda, notebooks
— resumes of books read
Intellectual — persona! (myself) — myself (intellectual material)
— journal (intimate thoughts)
— pocket books with witty sayings, amusing ideas
— others — different dossiers
— studies on separate shelves
1. File — to hold all that should be classified
2. Papers with the same format, different things going into cartons
3. Boxes for things (... souvenirs)
4. Drawer for literature (others)
5. Drawer for me (personal)
At the end of 1883, this classification was changed. The
first heading at this time, LITERATURE was subdivided into:
titles of different works (1882—3); melange (different things thought);
lie du Levant proofs; snatches of verse; stenography; concerning
school classes; various things begun (1881, 2, 3); literature (theory
of style), Essays on Society (a scientific journal); Physical exercises;
incidents from my college life.
Under the next main category, PERSONAL, were: «memoirs
and travels (physical life); Infinity (resolutions, personal
thoughts); intellectual life (Journal — 3 notebooks (1881—2)».
A third heading was added now, SCIENCES: «elements of
natural history; museums (work-room, collections, history of
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