THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

critical moment those who could have and should have spoken out
loud and clear did not.
Whatever the case, he reminded La Fontaine, there remained
two things: the International Office of Bibliography and the
Central Office of the International Associations. There was no
reason why these offices should not take up independent activity,
should not begin again, rejecting the recent past, if the Institute
of Bibliography or the Union of International Associations
«deviated from the original ends».
Otlet himself provoked ill feeling however, when he published
a study of the Common Subdivisions in April 1932 as
IIB Publication 169 without proper authorisation of the Executive
Council of the IID (IIB). 69 Bradford, aware of moves
in Europe to publish the German Abridged Edition and a Spanish
abridged edition, confronted with Otlet's unauthorised
work, but unable to attend the Frankfurt conference, wrote to-
«The Secretary» of the IID:
I desire that you will be so good as to put the following recommendations
before the Executive Committee on my behalf as a member
of that body and a delegate of the British Section:
1) That in view of the recent issue of Publication No. J69 and of proposed
new editions or translations, the Committee should reaffirm the
London resolution, that official publications of the Institute should be
issued only after authorisation by the Executive Committee.
2) That it is desirable that the proposed Spanish abridged edition should"
conform as far as possible to the German abridged edition, in accordance
with The Hague resolution that the latter edition should serve as
a basis for the preparation of other abridged editions .. . 70
Donker Duyvis was in a sense caught in the line of fire.
Above him in the Dutch Patent Office and President of the Institute
was Alingh Prins, and confronting him in Belgium was
the disgruntled Otlet who in the space of four months fired off
twenty-six «notes» at him. Otlet's notes ranged from one to
as many as half a dozen pages or more and covered an extraordinary
variety of subjects from the theoretical ^Classification
and classified language»), to the highly concrete matter,
of exchanges on the unauthorised Tables of the Common Subdivisions
when these were in proofs. 71 Moreovei, Otlet corresponded
«illegally» with the South Americans who were preparing
the Spanish abridged edition and generally interfered in
the Classification Committee's affairs.
Eventually, Donker Duyvis was forced to expostulate. He
agreed with Otlet that too many people regarded the UDC as
an end in itself and not as a means. But he also observed that
it was necessary to distinguish scientific matters (such as the
Classification which was satisfactorily under way) and administrative
matters which were not. The major problems in the
IID, in Donker Duyvis's view, were administrative and arose
from the absence of paid personnel. It had to rely too much on
voluntary work. This made itself felt in the organisation of
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