Literatur zur Informationserschließung

Diese Datenbank enthält über 40.000 Dokumente zu Themen aus den Bereichen Formalerschließung – Inhaltserschließung – Information Retrieval.

© 2015 W. Gödert, TH Köln, Institut für Informationswissenschaft / Powered by litecat, BIS Oldenburg (Stand: 28. April 2022)

Suchergebnisse

• 1
  Wright, A.: Cataloging the world : Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age.
  Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014. 360 S.
  ISBN 978-0-19-993141-5
  
  Abstract: In 1934, a Belgian entrepreneur named Paul Otlet sketched out plans for a worldwide network of computers-or "electric telescopes," as he called them - that would allow people anywhere in the world to search and browse through millions of books, newspapers, photographs, films and sound recordings, all linked together in what he termed a reseau mondial: a "worldwide web." Today, Otlet and his visionary proto-Internet have been all but forgotten, thanks to a series of historical misfortunes - not least of which involved the Nazis marching into Brussels and destroying most of his life's work. In the years since Otlet's death, however, the world has witnessed the emergence of a global network that has proved him right about the possibilities - and the perils - of networked information. 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, considering the intellectual challenge and tantalizing vision of Otlet's digital universe that in some ways seems far more sophisticated than the Web as we know it today. ; The dream of universal knowledge hardly started with the digital age. From the archives of Sumeria to the Library of Alexandria, humanity has long wrestled with information overload and management of intellectual output. Revived during the Renaissance and picking up pace in the Enlightenment, the dream grew and by the late nineteenth century was embraced by a number of visionaries who felt that at long last it was within their grasp. Among them, Paul Otlet stands out. A librarian by training, he worked at expanding the potential of the catalogue card -- the world's first information chip. From there followed universal libraries and reading rooms, connecting his native Belgium to the world -- by means of vast collections of cards that brought together everything that had ever been put to paper. Recognizing that the rapid acceleration of technology was transforming the world's intellectual landscape, Otlet devoted himself to creating a universal bibliography of all published knowledge. Ultimately totaling more than 12 million individual entries, it would evolve into the Mundaneum, a vast "city of knowledge" that opened its doors to the public in 1921. By 1934, Otlet had drawn up plans for a network of "electric telescopes" that would allow people everywhere to search through books, newspapers, photographs, and recordings, all linked together in what he termed a réseau mondial: a worldwide web. It all seemed possible, almost until the moment when the Nazis marched into Brussels and carted it all away. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright places Otlet in the long continuum of visionaries and pioneers who have dreamed of unifying the world's knowledge, from H.G. Wells and Melvil Dewey to Ted Nelson and Steve Jobs. And while history has passed Otlet by, Wright shows that his legacy persists in today's networked age, where Internet corporations like Google and Twitter play much the same role that Otlet envisioned for the Mundaneum -- as the gathering and distribution channels for the world's intellectual output. In this sense, Cataloging the World is more than just the story of a failed entrepreneur; it is an ongoing story of a powerful idea that has captivated humanity from time immemorial, and that continues to inspire many of us in today's digital age.
  
  Inhalt: Introduction -- 1. The Libraries of Babel -- 2. The Dream of the Labyrinth -- 3. Belle Epoque -- 4. The Microphotic Book -- 5. The Index Museum -- 6. Castles in the Air -- 7. Hope, Lost and Found -- 8. Mundaneum -- 9. The Collective Brain -- 10. The Radiated Library -- 11. The Intergalactic Network -- 12. Entering the Steam -- Conclusion.
  
  Themenfeld: Geschichte der Sacherschließung
  Objekt: Mundaneum
  
  LCSH: Otlet, Paul / 1868 / 1944 ; Mundaneum / History ; Bibliographers / Belgium / Biography ; Universal bibliography ; Documentation ; Classification / Books ; Information organization / History ; World Wide Web / History
  RSWK: Otlet, Paul / Biographie ; Informations- und Dokumentationswissenschaft / Klassifikation / Katalogisierung / Geschichte 1900-1950
  BK: 06.01 Geschichte des Informations- und Dokumentationswesens
  DDC: 020.9
  LCC: Z1004.O83
  RVK: AN 93200
  
• 2
  Levie, F.: ¬L' Homme qui voulait classer le monde : Paul Otlet et le Mundaneum.
  Bruxelles : Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2006. 352 S.
  ISBN 2-87449-022-9
  (Réflexions faites)
  
  Inhalt: Im WorldCat als Video nachgewiesen
  
  Anmerkung: Rez. in: KO 33(2006) no.2, S. 120-121 (S. Ducheyne): "To the readers of this journal the founding founder of bibliography and information science, the Belgian Paul Otlet (1868-1944), ground-layer of the Universal Decimal Classification, anticipator of multimedia, virtual libraries, and the Internet, and co-inventor of the microfilm or, as it was originally called, "le Bibliophote" (p. 107) (an achievement he shares together with Robert Goldschmidt), scarcely needs introduction. Françoise Levie's new biography of Otlet embodies the research she has started with the production of the documentary of the same name (Sofidoc, 2002, 60 min.). It is impossible to give a chapter-bychapter overview of this informatively dense and beautifully illustrated book, which consists of twenty chapters, a concluding piece by Benoît Peeters, a very useful list and description of the pivotal figures in Otlet's life, and a list containing the locations of the sources consulted (an index is, unfortunately, not provided). I will therefore restrict myself by pointing to Levie's innovative contributions to our knowledge of Otlet and to topics that are of genuine interest to the readers of this journal. Levie's book is the result of a fascinating, worldwide quest into the remains of Otlet's work and his international connections. Ever since W Boyd Rayward's monumental 1975 The Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organization (Moscow: VINITI), this book is the second systematic survey of the Collections of the Mundaneum (now, after various peregrinations, preserved at Bergen/Mons, Belgium) (cf. pp. 339-340), which contains Otlet's private documents, the "Otletaneum". Sixty-eight unopened banana boxes were the main source of inspirations for Levie's research. Of special interest in this respect is Levie's discovery of Otlet's 1916 diary "le Cahier Blue". As these boxes were, at the time Levie conducted her research, not classified and as they were thereafter re-divided and re-classified, precise references to this collection are not provided and the text is simply quoted during the course of the book (p. 339). While this is perfectly understandable, I would have welcomed exact references to Otlet's main works such as, for instance, Traité de documentation and Monde, Essai d'universalisme which are also quoted without supplying further details. ; Levie's focus is not exclusively on Otlet's contributions to bibliography and information science per se, but aims at offering a very complete, chronological overview of the life and work of Paul Otlet. Levie succeeds very well at documenting Otlet's personal and familial life, and offers ample socio-historical and political contextualisation of Otlet's activities (e.g. the interaction between Otlet's internationalist endeavours and the expansionist politics of King Leopold II (p. 59), and Otlet's ardent pacifism during World War I are relevantly highlighted (pp. 161176)). Levie begins by exploring Otlet's childhood days and by bringing into perspective some of the traits which are relevant to understand his later work. She shows how his father Edouard, an internationally active railway contractor, awoke a mondial awareness in the young Otlet (pp. 20-21) and how his encyclopaedic spirit for the first time found expression in a systematic inventory of the small Mediterranean isle his father bought (L'île du Levant, 1882) (p. 31). From the age of 16 Otlet suffered from a disorder of his literal memory (Otlet's personal testimony in the Cahier Blue, on p. 47), which might perhaps explain his lifelong obsession with completeness and accuracy. Of special interest to the readers of this journal are chapter 4, in which Otlet's and Henri Lafontaine's adaptation of Melvil Dewey's Decimal Classification and the origin of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is discussed in extenso (pp. 5170; also see chapter 6, p. 98 for Otlet's attempt at a universal iconographical index) and chapter 17, in which Traité de documentation (1934) is presented ; (pp. 267-277). In chapter 5 (pp. 75-89), Levie discusses Otlet's interest in urbanism (also see, p. 147 ff) and recounts how in Westende he built from scratch a complete coastal village, a kind of miniutopia, in close collaboration with the architects Octave Van Rysselberghe and Henry Van de Velde (unfortunately, it was destroyed in 1914). In close connection to their pacifist ideals, Otlet and his Nobelprize winning co-worker Lafontaine sought to realize a World City and in 1911 saw their ambitions shared by the joint work of the French architect Ernest Hébrard and the American-Norwegian sculptor Hendrik Anderson (pp. 128-141). Later, in the late 1920s, Otlet joined forces with Le Corbusier to establish such a world-centre (pp. 229-247, a 1930 letter of Le Corbusier to Otlet on this matter is reproduced on pages 234-235). In his later moments of desperation, Otlet called on virtually every major political leader, including Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler to achieve this goal (pp. 217-218, p. 294). In these chapters related to architecture, Levie draws extensively on previously unstudied correspondence and adds much detail to our knowledge of Otlet's explorations in this area. In several other chapters, Levie documents in great detail the less unknown rise and downfall of Otlet's "Mondial Palace" (which was inaugurated in 1919) (chapters 12-14 and 16). Looking back on Otlet's endeavours it is not difficult to realize that many of his "utopian" ideas were realized in the course of history. Levie's unique work represents a most welcome update of our knowledge of Otlet. It bears direct relevance for historians of information science and bibliography and historians of architecture, but will, no doubt, attract many scholars from other disciplines, as it places Otlet against the background of several important historical trends and as it is very accessibly written. I take it that publishers are already preparing an English edition of this work - or else, they should be. I wholeheartedly agree with Levie's conclusion that we haven't finished discovering Otlet's work (p. 318)."
  
  Themenfeld: Biographische Darstellungen ; International bedeutende Universalklassifikationen
  Objekt: UDC
  
  RSWK: Otlet, Paul / Biographie (SWB) ; Otlet, Paul / Biografie (GBV) ; Brüssel / Office International de Bibliographie / Geschichte (SWB)
  BK: 06.01 / Geschichte des Informations- und Dokumentationswesens
  RVK: AN 93400 Allgemeines / Buch- und Bibliothekswesen, Informationswissenschaft / Informationswissenschaft / Grundlagen, Theorie / Klassifikation