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THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

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-with it, prepared developments of the Decimal Classification<br />

relevant to its subject areas and was publishing extensive periodical<br />

bibliographies on cards as part of the RBU.<br />

In two major respects the Institute had enjoyed only a<br />

limited success. Hard though its sponsors had tried, it had<br />

failed to shake the confidence of the Royal Society in London<br />

in the preconceptions which led the Society to devise its own<br />

specialised classification for scientific literature, a classification<br />

unrelated to the Decimal Classification, and to set up<br />

an international organisation for scientific bibliography unrelated<br />

to the Institute. It had also failed to win the active<br />

support of the International Congress of Publishers. Aware<br />

of the need for standardisation in the preparation of trade<br />

catalogues and bibliographies, the Congress had, in the final<br />

analysis, made no commitment at all to the Decimal Classification<br />

as providing a basis for their arrangement. Instead, it<br />

had become more interested in the use of a simple system of<br />

subject-headings. 77 A major source of material for the RBU<br />

was therefore prevented from being directly assimilable by it<br />

in so far as the resolutions of the Congress were effective in<br />

influencing the policy followed by various trade bibliographies.<br />

Nevertheless, Otlet and La Fontaine's propaganda for the<br />

Institute and the widespread appearance of its success, won<br />

over a great many individuals to support it. In 1899 Richard<br />

Rogers Bowker visited the OIB. He had had the impression<br />

before he left America that many of his colleagues thought<br />

that the Belgian Institution existed «more on paper» than as<br />

a «practical working Office». 78 To correct any misapprehension<br />

of this kind, he published a report on his visit in the Library<br />

Journal. He discussed the objectives of the Institute and the<br />

extent to which they appeared to have been met. Among other<br />

matters, he dwelt with satisfaction on the considerably advanced<br />

elaboration of the Belgian version of the Decimal<br />

Classification. No doubt his was a typical reaction at the<br />

time to the IIB—OIB: surprise at the energy of its supporters<br />

and satisfaction at its accomplishments.<br />

<strong>THE</strong> UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION <strong>OF</strong> PARIS, 1900<br />

A seal of early approval was set on the IIB—OIB in 1900,<br />

the year of the Universal Exposition in Paris. The exposition<br />

was the most magnificent of its kind yet held. Very large and<br />

successful exhibitions had been held in Paris in 1867, 1878<br />

and 1889. They «were manifestations of the positivist's faith<br />

in material and scientific progress as panaceas for all man's<br />

ills». 7S The Exposition of 1867 had been largely organised by<br />

Frederic Le Play, engineer, economist and sociologist. He had<br />

attempted to make it an elevating expression of social, econo-<br />

74

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