THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

printed that year, the Abridged Tables with a new introductory
explanation of how the classification worked, 46 and part of
the tables for the division 62, 47 and attention was drawn
to them.
The conclusions of the International Congress on Intellectual
Work, responses to the following questions, were predictable:
1. What is the role of the intellect and of intellectuals in present
day society...?
2. What organisation should be given to intellectual work considered
from the point of view of its tools, co-operation and international
public services...?
3. What organisation should be given to intellectuals ...?
4. What connections should be established between the organisation
of scientific work on the one hand, and that of scientific workers on
the other? How should the League of Nations and the Bureau of
Work be involved as representatives of international public power? 48
The Congress had, in effect, to rationalise the place in the
order of intellectual things of the League of Nations, the
Union of International Associations, the Confederation of
Intellectual Workers (CTI), a sort of trade-union movement
begun in France after the war and quickly spreading to other
•countries, 49 and an International Bureau of Education, the
formation of which was being debated at this time. It was
resolved that the Universal Bibliographic Repertory, the
Documentary Encyclopedia, the International Library, the
International Museum and University, and the Center for
International Associations had done so much for intellectual
work already that they should be elevated to the rank of
«public international services provided with resources capable
of assuring to them the incontestable advantage of being
developed together, and of being organised in such a way that
they may be in fact at the disposition of any intellectual
working in any region of the world». 50
Otlet saw the Congress as bringing «decisive contributions*
to the Quinzaine Internationale and looked forward
with hope to the opening in Geneva soon afterwards of the
second Assembly of the League, to which La Fontaine again
repaired as a Belgian delegate. Drummond presented his
report on the «Educational Activities and the Co-ordination of
Intellectual Work Accomplished by the Union of International
Associations*, as requested by the first Assembly. 51 It
contained a full description of the IIB and the Union in two
parts: «up to 1914» and «since the formation of the League».
The Secretary-General mentioned the financial dispositions
of the Union briefly. «The cost of the work accomplished by
MM La Fontaine and Otlet has amounted since its beginning
to approximately 1,200,000 francs...» But, Drummond also
observed that «the activity of the Institution created by MM
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