THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

instituted to ensure the steady, regular development of aspects
of its work.
Under Article Six of the Royal Decree of 14 September
1895, the Belgian government had undertaken to provide the
Office with more spacious and appropriate accommodations
than had been at its disposal at the Hotel Ravenstein. Accordingly,
part of the Palais des Musees Royaux in the Rue de la
Regence in Brussels, was made available to it in July 1896.
At this time, too, a paid secretary, Charles Sury, was appointed
to supervise the internal activity of the Office. It should
not be forgotten that both Otlet and La Fontaine continued to
be occupied extensively outside the Office during this period,
the one by complicated and distasteful business affairs, the
other by his Parliamentary duties and international juridical
interests.
Sury took charge of the move from the Hotel Ravenstein
to the new quarters. In the summer of 1896, having gone to
London in the company of La Fontaine and de Wulf for the
Royal Society's International Catalogue of Scientific Literature
Conference, Otlet went to Westend, the family holiday
resort, for a vacation. During" the months of July and August,
Sury wrote to him every several days reporting on the progress
of the Office, the setting up of which seemed to advance «rapidly
and normally», dispatching letters and acknowledging
and performing Otlet's instructions. 42 While Otlet was still
away a number of the requests previously made of the Ministry
of Finances and Public Works and its Administration
•of Public Buildings were finally met. The rooms in the Palais
des Musees received two coats of paint. Arrangements were
completed for office furniture to be supplied, and special
catalog furniture for the repertories was ordered from a firm
of cabinet makers, Dammon—Washer. A number of women
had also been employed, and they worked industriously under
Sury's watchful eye dismembering the volumes of the Royal
Society*s Catalogue of Scientific Papers for inclusion in the
Universal Bibliographic Repertory. Four women averaged
about 2,000 cards a day in the period August 25 to 28. «It's
not very much!», Sury exclaimed impatiently when they completed
fewer than 2,000. Nevertheless, this activity represented
a drastic expansion of the Repertory which had hitherto been
confined to the literature of the Social Sciences. Sury reported
the receipt of a number of interesting publications to Otlet.
and mentioned visits and correspondence. John Shaw Billings
called, 43 for example, and General Hippolyte Sebert, who became
one of OIB's staunchest supporters, began what was to
become a regular, voluminous and indecipherable correspondence
with Otlet. 44 The Librarian of the Ministry of the Interior
and Public Instruction, heralding things to come,
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