THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

the beginning of something new and perfectible not the definitive
statement of something old and perfected.
The parts of the Classification that Otlet and La Fontaine
"were responsible for had been on the whole simply reprinted
from the 1905 edition. Great dissatisfaction with them was
expressed and finally in 1935 various collaborators under the
guidance of Donker Duyvis then set to work «to bring those
first chapters on the same level as the following ones». 28
These, the parts for science and technology, had been almost
completely rewritten by Donker Duyvis with the help of various
collaborators.
Lorphevre gives a vivid and personal picture of what
went into the preparation and final printing of this new edition
of the full UDC.
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The responsibility of the editors was established: pure and applied
sciences under the authority of Donker Duyvis, the humane sciences
under the direction of Otlet and La Fontaine.
It was understood that Donker Duyvis would be entirely responsible
for editing the chapters devolving on him. He did so with the aid of
a hundred specialists whom he had interested in the work.
In November 1926, printing properly speaking began...
The gathering together of the material in different languages presented
the greatest difficulties. There were English, German and Dutch
texts, all having to be turned into French. A good part of the translation
"was done at Brussels, but the files are scattered everywhere with
linguistic discussions. Unexpected incidents led to the loss of time,
such as that of a badly translated German abbreviation which completely
distorted the text without anyone immediately identifying the
cause of discussions which resulted in... [a] faulty interpretation.
t'Donker Duyvis had the sheets of this withdrawn and paid for the
printing of a corrected version from his own pocket.] 29 A letter from
Deventer [Donker Duyvis' home town] of 31 July 1927 said about
this that «the linguistic control is the heaviest part of the works.
After translation, the text was returned to Deventer for decimalisation.
Donker Duyvis preferred to work on a text showing the subordination
of ideas but devoid of decimal numbers. The number of main
terms was revised according to the new everywhere compulsory criterion:
that of the statistical frequency of publications on a subject.
When the division arose from the classification of one of the Patent
Offices (Germany or Holland), the number of patents necessary for
the introduction of a special classification number was fixed at 1,000.
In the following stage, the proofs were corrected in Deventer and
even in London as well as in Brussels where the printing was carried
out...
The work of correction was one of the most difficult after that of
translation. An enormous problem was that of our friend's eyes. His
sight was bad and La Fontaine went to help him, but, of course, the
Belgian Senator was a multiple person. He was busy with national
and international politics. He was the Belgian delegate to the League
of Nations. He travelled frequently and each departure created a drama
for Donker Duyvis who saw the work slowed by it. On the 1st
November he wrote: «the opthamologist has condemned me to a two
week treatment for my eyes». In fact he had to undergo an operation.
Happily, La Fontaine was in Brussels, and the damage was lessened.