THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

assistance as far as possible with a view to facilitating the
work of the Institute within these limits». Article Two, setting
out the work of the IIB, contained the undertaking of the IIB
«to concentrate its efforts and resources, in the first instance»,
•on the following tasks:
(1) The development of an alphabetical catalog of author's names on
the lines of a collective catalog of the great libraries of the world,
indicating where a copy of any particular work can be found;
(2) The development of the following sections of a systematic catalog:
a) Bibliography and sections connected with bibliography...
b) organisation of scientific work and intellectual co-operation.
The Institute also undertook to perform the other tasks set out
in Godet's program of work. Article Three was an undertaking
to fix the exact order of specific tasks later. Article Five
-was an agreement to include a member of the International
•Committee on Intellectual Co-operation in the governing body
of the Institute. 15 It was Richardson's opinion that the draft
prepared by Godet was «thoroughly practical*. «The fact», he
observed to Otlet «that the League Committee has no budget
to devote to it is a detail». 16
THE MONDANEUM
During these difficult months of 1924, Otlet attempted to
gain support not only for the IIB, which, in point of fact, was
proving to have able advocates in Holland and America, but
also for the whole, beleaguered Palais Mondial. Godfrey Dewey
offered to do his best in America through the Lake Placid Club
for the «World Palace», as he called it:
I realise fully that right now is a critical time for the World Palace,
and feel that we should do everything in our power to assist right
now when help is most needed, and to enlist the interest and help of
the Club clientele, among whom there are many who could be of effective
assistance either by influence or money if their interest could
be reached and roused. 17
But he found it difficult to understand what had actually
happened in Brussels and why, and his lack of facts he
believed interfered with his attempts to counter the unfavourable
impressions about the Palais Mondial that were
spreading in America, some of them engendered he suspected
by American members of the Committee on Intellectual
Co-operation. 18
Otlet decided to call a conference of the UIA in 1924 at
the same time as that of the IIB. He made no attempt to
set up a Quinzaine Internationale in Geneva, but it was
•clear that a conference of the UIA on the doorstep of the
League, as it were, would be opportune and might be thought
to carry on the great World Congresses of 1910, 1913 and
1920, though in diminished form. He prepared two documents
279