THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

Mondial. He would not or could not grasp the fact that in
the late 1920s the IIB had to find new directions and was
gradually but quite definitely becoming independent of him as
it did so, both in terms of its new regional organisation and
its emphasis on the Decimal Classification. Otlet's universalist
and centralist approach soon became irrelevant to the new
faces appearing within the IIB.
One of these was Alan Pollard's, IIB President for
1927—1928. Pollard had been interested in the IIB and the
Decimal Classification since 1908 when he had made Otlet's
acquaintance and looked over the IIB in Brussels. 94 After the
War he began to translate and develop those parts of the CD
dealing with optics and light for application to the index of
the Transactions of the Optical Society. His account of the
classification and his translation of the tables was published
in 1926. 95 He was, therefore, no newcomer to the IIB or to
the Universal Decimal Classification. His leadership during
his several terms as President was vigorous, intelligent and
courteous, and it brought the IIB firmly out of the shadow
of its past.
A sad, symbolical ending of the old order in the IIB was
the death reported by Otlet to its 1928 meeting, of Louis
Masure who had been its Secretary in Brussels for over
thirty years. «0wing to the circumstance*, Otlet observed,
«it has not been possible to replace him». 96
FOOTNOTES
1. L'Afjaire du Palais Mondial (Publication No. 112;
1924), pp. 30—31.
Bruxelles: UIA,
2. Otlet to Godfrey Dewey, 27 January, 1925, Dossier No. 259, «Dewey»,
Mundaneum.
3. Otlet to Godfrey Dewey, 8 May 1926, ibid.
4. Adolphe Van Glabbeke, «Belgium», Annual Register, 1926
Longmans Green, 1927).
(London
5. Ernest Cushing Richardson, Some Aspects of International
Co-operation (Yardley, Pa..: F. S. Cook, 1928), p. 154.
Library
6. Otlet to Godfrey Dewey, 19 August 1927, Dossier No. 259, «Dewey»,
Mundaneum.
7. Masure to Losseau, 10 December 1923,
Mundaneum.
Dossier No. 256, «Losseau»,
8. Bulletin de novembre 1925 (Publication No. 145; Bruxelles: IIB, 1925),
P. 1.
9. Ibid., p. 2.
10. Georges Lorphevre, «Donker Duyvis et la Classification Dccimale Universelle»,
F. Donker Duyvis.: His Life and Work (Nider Publication
299