THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

At the annual conference of the IIB in 1931 at The Hague,
the basis for further transformations was laid. In the summary
report of the conference 60 Otlet observed that the success of the
Decimal Classification was now assured, but commented that
efforts should be made to guarantee the maintenance and the unity
of the system. Certain people believe that they can present different
versions. This is an error and a fault. The IIB has laid down principles
for the protection of the work of which it is the guardian in the common
interest. Translations and publications of extracts of the official
version can be made only with permission. 61
Now that the UDC had been reprinted, Otlet suggested that
other important work of the IIB, left in abeyance for a time,
could be resumed. He mentioned the RBU and the various publications
of the IIB. He presented a paper on the Bibliographia
Universalis to the Conference, reverting to an earlier concept
of co-operation in the RBU, though the paper was essentially
a collection of «observations and recommendations for the
publication of bibliographical notices and collections*. 62
Debate, however, was sparked by a report presented by
Jean Gerard, Director of the International Office for Chemistry
in Paris, on the creation largely by Gerard in France of a
Union of organisations connected with Documentation
(L'UFOD — Union Francaise des Offices de Documentation).
The debate permitted the exchange of general views on the orientation
and organisation, even, to be given to the IIB in the future. It was
unanimously considered wrong that certain people had identified the
Institute with some of its methods. On the contrary, the Institute has
a very general object. Without a doubt, it attaches a critical importance
to the elaboration of a complete and rigorous method permitting
co-operation; without a doubt it attached a particular value to the
Decimal Classification because of this. But to become a member of the
IIB does not imply the acceptance of those methods; no profession of
«decimal orthodoxy* has ever been demanded of its members. Thus,
with its central establishment, its specialised commissions, its national
sections, its annual conferences, the IIB presents itself as the general
organisation for documentation...
At the conclusion of the debate, it was decided to join to the name
of the IIB that of International Institute for Documentation and to
interpret it in the sense of a veritable World Union.. , 63
The transformation of the name of the Institute Otlet interpreted
as a step towards the creation of the International Union
for Documentation, that haunting idea that reached back to
the very foundation of the Institute itself, and particularly to
the work of the IIB Conferences of 1908 and 1910.
At the 1931 Hague Conference, however, not only was the
name of the IIB changed, Pollard was replaced by Alingh
Prins as President of the Institute which now had a Dutch
President and a Dutch Secretary-General who was also Secretary
of the Institute's most important Committee, the International
Committee for the Decimal Classification. Losseau gives
a clue to the significance of the IIB's change of name and the
325