THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

success it might enjoy. They could then hope to take advantage
of the opportunity for propaganda presented by the meeting
in London in 1896, and attempt to draw the Royal Society and
the International Conference on a Catalogue of Scientific
Literature into supporting, perhaps actively collaborating with
them, in the development of the Decimal Classification and the
Universal Bibliographic Repertory. By holding their conference
in 1895, rather than being put in the invidious position of
declaring an intention in 1896, they were given the advantage
of announcing a fact.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BIBLIOGRAPHY
The International Conference of Bibliography assembled
on the 2nd day of September, 1895 as planned, broke into study
groups, examined the matters placed before it for three
days and closed in a plenary session with resounding applause
by the delegates at what they had been able to accomplish.
As a majority of the delegates were Belgian the conference
could hardly be called representatively international, as a number
of commentators pointed out with some asperity. 26 Nevertheless,
an independent body of men, with representation
from a number of countries, had formally taken up the points
set out in the invitation to the conference 27 and in its «working
paper» had debated them and had passed a series of apparently
unanimous resolutions on them. The work of two Belgians
was therefore given a form of international sanction,
and they had got in ahead of the Royal Society. «Decimal
Classification unanimously adopted. Internationl Bibliographical
Institute proclaimed you honorary member», cabled Otlet
to Dewey. 28
The resolutions of the conference were as follows:
1. The conference considers that the Decimal Classification gives
fully satisfactory results from an international and practical point
of view;
2. The conference observes the considerable applications already made
of Dewey's Classification and recommends its adoption as a whole to
facilitate an agreement between all countries with the briefest delay;
3. The conference resolves that the governmens should form a universal
bibliographic union with a view to the creation of an International
Office of Bibliography. It charges its Bureau to carry this
resolution to the Belgian government and respectfully asks that
it take whatever steps it thinks would be useful;
4. The conference has settled on the creation of an International
Institute of Bibliography;
5. The conference, considering that any systematic classification presupposes
the existence of complete, accurate national bibliographies,.
points out to the government the importance of uniform legal deposit
laws;
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