Knowra Paul Otlet Paul Otlet Paul Otlet (1868–1944) was a Belgian author and documentalist who developed the Universal Decimal Classification and helped establish modern information science.
Universal Decimal Classification : A faceted bibliographic classification system that extends Dewey Decimal Classification with auxiliary signs and subdivisions. Otlet and Henri La Fontaine developed this system to classify subjects with greater specificity.
Universal Bibliographic Repertory : An international card catalogue intended to record publications from across the world. It was the central catalogue through which Otlet’s universal bibliography took practical form.
International bibliography : The effort to record and organize publications across national and linguistic boundaries. Otlet’s universal repertory sought to make this long-standing bibliographic ambition comprehensive.
Information science : The study of how information is created, organized, stored, retrieved, and used. Otlet’s documentary methods helped shape the discipline’s early intellectual foundations.
International Institute of Bibliography : An organization founded in 1895 to compile and organize a universal bibliography. Otlet and La Fontaine created it to coordinate their international bibliographic project.
Index card : A small standardized card used to record and arrange discrete pieces of information. Cards let Otlet’s teams subdivide, sort, and interfile bibliographic records.
Bibliography : The systematic description and listing of books, documents, or other publications. Otlet expanded bibliography from listing books into organizing all forms of recorded knowledge.
World Wide Web : A system of interlinked resources accessed over the internet through web browsers. Otlet’s envisioned network of linked documents is often compared with the Web, though it was not digital.
Mundaneum : A Belgian institution and collection devoted to gathering and organizing documents about human knowledge. It housed the vast card catalogue and documentary collections built from Otlet’s vision.
Bibliographic database : An organized collection of records describing books, articles, and other publications. Otlet’s card repertory anticipated the functions of later bibliographic databases.
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