THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

THE CONFERENCES OF 1924 AND AFTERWARDS
Godfrey Dewey presided at the Geneva meeting on the 8th
September 1924 of the IIB, effective membership in which was
held by Nider, the Bureau Bibliographique de Paris, the Concilium
Bibliographicum, the Union Internationale des Villes,
the Federation Dentaire Internationale, the Institut International
d'Agriculture and the Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry, and one or two other bodies. 33 Two new sections
were now admitted to effective membership of the Institute:
the Association Suisse pour l'Organisation de Travail et de
Documentation (Asted) and a Section for Bibliological Psychology.
Both sections originated in Otlet's sojourn in Geneva
during the War. In 1912 Emile Chavannes from Switzerland
had visited the IIB and had made Otlet's acquaintance. During
the War years the two men had set up Asted and had even
discussed the possibility of Asted publishing an edition of the
Decimal Classification for the IIB. 34 The moving force behind
the Section for Bibliological Psychology was an expatriate
Russian, Nicholas Roubakine, who had written since 1889 some
two hundred works of scientific popularisation. He had also
written on Bibliological Psychology, the theory and practice of
«the scientific study of all the mental phenomena associated
with the creation, circulation, influence and use of the book
and of the written and spoken word ingeneral». Roubakine, Otlet
and the Director of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute
had set up a special Section of the IIB for «Bibliological
Psychology* in 1916. These two sections were now admitted to
membership of the IIB in terms of Article 9 of the new Statutes.
At the same time the IIB Council, acting within the terms
of this Article, issued invitations for the formation of Austrian
and Hungarian sections, requesting that the Nationalbibliotek
and a Professor Harvath respectively temporarily assume
charge of each section's secretariat. Only Chavannes voted
against the new statutes because he thought that they «did
not give sufficient support to the Secretaries-General*. The
Institute also adopted without question the draft agreement
with the League. It was signed by Sir Eric Drummond and
came into force in November 1924.
Among the delegates to the Classification Committee's
meeting were Godfrey Dewey and Dorcas Fellows who had
succeeded May Seymour as editor of the American classification.
One of the most important conclusions of this meeting was
that «the editions of the Decimal Classification Codes of Dewey
and of the IIB should be unified*. Towards this end it was
resolved that the two codes should be modified in such a way
that «the best of both will be adopted, each party consenting
to the necessary sacrifices*. It was concluded that there should
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