THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

support and authority to ensure success, to effect such accord and
ensure its preservation in the future.
2. The parties responsible for the projected English translation
would explore the possibilities of providing in that translation (which
would automatically become the standard authorised edition of the
IIB) sufficient re-adjustment of discordant sections to enable the
Educational Foundation [of the Lake Placid Club] to accept this as a
valuable evidence of good will.
3. Preferably, such preliminary revisions would be made in the main
three-figure divisions, as far as practicable.
4. The results of this preliminary survey would be communicated to
Mr. Dewey dn order that he might put them before the Educational
Foundation as evidence of co-operation and good will. 45
What had become of Dorcas Fellows' project for concordance
is obscure, and Donker Duyvis makes no mention of it in his
1931 report on the Classification Committee's work. From a
comment of his, it seems clear that he envisaged the English
translation of the CD as being significantly different from the
DC. «It seems impossible*, he said, «to realise the concordance
all of a sudden, therefore we should try to make the two
editions approach each other gradually in subsequent editions*.
46 This comment reveals again his attitude of getting
the CD into translation and into print as a basis for future
revisions. Though belief in the desirability of concordance was
never quite lost in Europe and some work appears to have
been done on it, after 1931 the work was token and the belief
vague. Permission was granted by the Americans in 1933 for
the printing of the English edition subject only to the provisos
that «substantial concordance on 1000 heads be reached*,
and that a formal acknowledgement of the origin of the CD
in Melvil Dewey's DC be made. 47 The work was to be issued as
a British Standard.
The Germans emerged as an important group in the fortunes
of the Decimal Classification and the IIB in 1931. In
his report on the activities of the Classification Committee for
that year, Donker Duyvis described the new shape the organisation
of work on the UDC had taken following his scheme of
extension and revision through translation. In Germany, he
announced, an abridged manual of the UDC was being prepared.
Great hopes were had of this work:
This edition will be far more extensive than the French «abregees»,
and may be considered a true «library edition*. It may serve the following
purposes:
1. Classification for public libraries,
2. Classification for larger general libraries such as university libraries,
3. Classification for special libraries. In that case the translation of
the part of the complete manual in connection with the special field
of the library should be used together with the German abridged
edition.
4. Introduction and general guide to the complete manual. 48
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