Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age - Hardcover

Alex Wright

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199931410 ISBN 13: 9780199931415

Publisher: Oup Usa, 2014

Synopsis

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 réseau 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.

About this title

Review

The index is excellent, of a quality rarely seen nowadays (Library & Information History, J.H. Bowman)

Meticulously researched. (Philip Ball, Nature)

A remarkable read in its entirety, not only in illuminating history but in extracting from it a beacon for the future. (Brain Pickings) --(Brain Pickings)

An excellent study of a Belgian, Paul Otlet, who in the late nineteenth century began 'a vast intellectual enterprise that attempted to organize and code everything ever published' ... Relevant of course to the origins of the web, Wikipedia, and current sites such as Vox.com. (Marginal Revolution) --(Marginal Revolution)

a great introduction to Paul Otlet's life ... [Wright] provides a thorough overview of its historical context and how it relates to our Internet Age. (Nigel Watson, Magonia) --(Nigel Watson, Magonia)

About the Author

Alex Wright is Director of User Experience and Product Research at The New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oup Usa
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199931410
• ISBN 13: 9780199931415
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 360