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Cataloging the world : Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age  Cover Image Book Book

Cataloging the world : Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age

Wright, Alex 1966- (author.).

Summary: "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"--

Item details

  • ISBN: 9780199931415
  • ISBN: 0199931410
  • Physical Description: print
    350 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
  • Publisher: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2014]

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-335) and index.
Formatted Contents Note: The libraries of Babel -- The dream of the labyrinth -- Belle Epoque -- The microphotic book -- The Index Museum -- Castles in the air -- Hope, lost and found -- Mundaneum -- The collective brain -- The radiated library -- The intergalactic network -- Entering the stream.
Subject: Otlet, Paul 1868-1944
Mundaneum History
Bibliographers Belgium Biography
Universal bibliography
Documentation
Classification Books
Information organization History
World Wide Web History
HISTORY Europe Western
HISTORY Modern 20th Century
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING History
Otlet, Paul 1868-1944
Mundaneum.
Bibliographers
Classification Books
Documentation
Information organization
Universal bibliography
World Wide Web
Belgium
Otlet, Paul 1868-1944
International Institute of Bibliography
Bibliographers Belgium Biography
Otlet, Paul 1868-1944
Mundaneum History
Universal bibliography
Documentation
Classification Books
Information organization History
World Wide Web History
Belgium
History
Information
Classification
Documentation
Internet
Websites
Cyberspace
Biographies, memoirs and correspondance
Genre: Biographies.
History.
Biographies.

Currently available copies

  • 1 out of 1 copy are currently available at PINES. (Show)
  • 1 out of 1 copy are currently available at Clayton County Library System.

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Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status  
Clayton County Library System:
      Riverdale Branch
020.9 WRIGHT, ALEX ( Send Text)
31012004023485 STACKS Available

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