THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

liographies for law and sociology which were now called the
Bibliographie Internationale des sciences sociales and not upon
some institutional service based on the repertory itself. 34
After September 1895, as part of the Belgian government,
the Office was now expected to carry out a much larger program
than it had had before. It was to become a center of
bibliographical planning, co-operation, information, supplies
land, expertise. It faced the translation and (development of the
Decimal Classification, and the rapid expansion for direct public
use of the Universal Bibliographic Repertory. To ensure an
orderly division and performance of the multitudinous tasks
that would devolve upon it and a systematic allocation of them
among a staff assembled to perform them, some kind of formalised,
bureaucratic structure had become necessary for it.
The assumption by the Belgian government of some considerable
measure of resposibility for the Office contributed
strongly to its bureaucratisation. 35 In 1895 the Office received
10,000 Belgian francs from the government and this amount
was increased to 15,000 Belgian francs the following year and
was later increased again. 36 But in order to continue to obtain
this subsidy the Office was required to provide the government
with a detailed accounting for all money received and spent by
it. Moreover, the drawing up and publication of the internal
regulations by which the Office was to be administered was.
also mandatory in terms of the Royal Decree of 14 September,
1895. These regulations were submitted in due course to the
Minister for the Interior and Public Instruction for approval,
and were gazetted in 1898. 37 They defined the tasks that the
Office was legally obliged to perform, set the hours during
which it would be open to the public, indicated what the budget
was to contain and precisely when it should be submitted,
what kinds of extraordinary expenses were to be reviewed by
the Minister and so on. They also recognised that the services
of the Director and Secretary-General would be freely given,
but that other personnel could be employed as necessary and
as circumstances permitted. The Secretary-General was clearly
acknowledged as head of the Office, and set apart for him was
the responsibility of seeing that the decisions of the Committee
of Direction were carried out, and that the minutes of its
meetings were kept. He was to be held ultimately accountable
for all general correspondence in the Office and for the disposition
of its funds.
As laid down, these rules divided authority in the Office
between the Ministry, the Committee of Direction, the Secretary-General
(and Treasurer) and the Director. They were designed
to maintain a certain consistency of action at the Office
and to ensure a permanence of function. They brought the
Office into the realm of governmental bureaucracy as a physi-
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