THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

Moreover, German translation of a number of special sections
in the field of the «technical sciences* of the complete manual
were undertaken under the supervision of Carl Walther. Translation
involved «retouches», and Donker Duyvis advised those
who wanted extensions or to co-operate in some way in the
preparation of the German edition of the special sections to
put themselves into communication with Walther who presided
over a special committee, the Deutscher Ausschuss fur Universel
Klassifikation, to coordinate German efforts. «Practically
all learned and technical societies in Germany» were represented
in this Committee which had official status. 49
In England emphasis was on work in the pure sciences
and the medical sciences. The English collaborators tended to
work through the intermediary of the Science Library. A joint
committee of ASLIB and BSIB, however, had been formed to
work on the translation of the whole CD manual. The emergence
of a strong English and German interest in the UDC meant
that now four national groups were deeply engaged in the
affairs of the Institute — English, German, Dutch and Belgian.
The provision written into the 1924 revision of the IIB statutes,,
stressed by Pollard in 1928 though his concept of «daughter
societies* and further encouraged by the allocation of voting
rights in 1929 which emphasised the importance of national
sections in the Institute, was now taking effect with a vengeance
through work on translation of the UDC. As the national
sections increased their activity and influence, the central position
of Otlet, La Fontaine and the IIB Headquarters in Brussels,
was gradually undermined. Noting the emergence of
strong nationalist forces in the IIB in 1930, Otlet observed to
Godfrey Dewey: «I believe there is going to be a crisis*. 50
The UDC now became the key to renewed League interest
in the IIB. The Committee of Library Experts had decided
in 1929 to explore ways of League collaboration with the
IIB in terms of the study and co-ordination of bibliographical
classification. Pollard, emphasising the widespread use of
the UDC in England and the IIB's international network of
affiliated Societies*, had suggested to the Committee that it
formally adopt the Decimal Classification and set the IIB up'
as a Branch of the Institute. 51 The Committee, however, recommended
that the classification, the largest existing attempt
at universal classification, «should be improved across the
various sciences but taking into account the needs of libraries
which has not been done before*. It made it clear that therecould
be no intimate participation of League and IIB in this
venture and resolved that
322
it is not possible for the Sub-Committee for Sciences and Bibliography
or the Committee of Library Experts to collaborate directly in
this work: that, moreover, it is desirable that the Brussels Institute