Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age
by Alex Wright
- Author(s)
- Alex Wright
- Publication, year
- Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014
- Scope
- 350 Pages, illustrated, 22 cm.
- ISBN
- 9780199931415
In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright brings to light the forgotten genius of Paul Otlet, an introverted librarian who harbored a bookworm's dream to organize all the world's information. Recognizing the limitations of traditional libraries and archives, Otlet began to imagine a radically new way of organizing information, and undertook his life's great work: a universal bibliography of all the world's published knowledge that ultimately totaled more than 12 million individual entries. That effort eventually evolved into the Mundaneum, a vast "city of knowledge" that opened its doors to the public in 1921 to widespread attention. Like many ambitious dreams, however, Otlet's eventually faltered, a victim to technological constraints and political upheaval in Europe on the eve of World War II. Wright tells not just the story of a failed entrepreneur, but the story of a powerful idea — the dream of universal knowledge — that has captivated humankind since before the great Library at Alexandria. Cataloging the World explores this story through the prism of today's digital age.
- Person as subject
- Paul Otlet
- Keywords
- new media
- Location
- Cabinet 11B - 1: Informatievormgeving
- Remarks
- Incl. Bibliography and Index.
based on keyword
