Journal of Information and Knowledge (Formerly SRELS Journal of Information Management)

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Revisiting Duyvis:A Chemical Engineer’s Zeal to Organize Knowledge


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1 Department of Library and Information Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721102, West Bengal, India
     

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This paper presents an analytical study on Frits Donker Duyvis’ role in developing and revising Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). Also, his role as Secretary General of International Institute of Bibliography (IIB) has been analysed. The IIB was formed in 12th September 1895 at Brussels actually to sponsor UDC. It was renamed as International Institute for Documentation in 1931. During Duyvis’ tenure in IIB, several controversies occurred with Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, the inventors of UDC. Otlet’s universal philosophy and notion of a great centralised bibliographic repertory confronted Duyvis’ pragmatic outlook, which is perhaps one of the most remarkable conflicts in the history of knowledge classification in IIB. The excerpts of some memorable letters of Otlet and Duyvis are presented here to present a layout of the historical conflicts took place centring the revision process of UDC. According to Ranganathan, Donker Duyvis was primarily a classificationist and not a grammarian of classificatory language. Several excerpts from different documents are presented to reckon that if Otlet was the first to understand that classification was at the heart of all documentation, it was Duyvis who made this finding in everyday practice.

Keywords

Dewey Decimal Classification, Duyvis, Faceted Classification, Frits Donker Duyvis, Henri La Fontaine, International Institute for Bibliography (IIB), International Institute for Documentation (IID), Melvil Dewey, Paul Otlet, Universal Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), Universal Repertory.
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About The Author

Bidyarthi Dutta
Department of Library and Information Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721102, West Bengal
India


Notifications

  • Ranganathan SR. (1961). Sayers and Donker Duyvis: Theory and maintenance of library classification, Annals of Library Science. 8(3):85-99.

  • Kent A, Lancour H and Daily JE. ed. (1976). Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science, 19:277, New York: Marcel Dekker, ISBN: 0-8247-2019-9.

  • Rayward WB. ed. (2008). European modernism and the information society: informing the present, understanding the past, Hampshire: Ashgate, 51p. PMid: 19011712 .

  • Bradford SC. (1944). The Universal Decimal Classification: Its origin and purpose, structure and use, British Society for International Bibliography Proceedings, 6(1):71-36.

  • Universal Decimal Classification. Acceded on: June 25, 2017. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_ Decimal_Classification.

  • UDC Consortium. Acceded on: June 25, 2017. Available at: http://www.udcc.org/index.php/site/page?view=about_history.

  • UDC Consortium. Acceded on: June 25, 2017. Available at: http://www.udcc.org/index.php/site/page?view=about.

  • Otlet P. (1975). La Documentation en agriculture: Rapport sur la mission a I’Institut International d’Agriculture (Rome: The Institute, 1921). In: Rayward, W.B. The Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organisation (FID 520); Moscow: All-Union Institute For Scientific and Technical Information (Viniti); 1975. p. 220.

  • Georges Lorphevre and Donker Duyvis et la. (1964). Classification Decimale Universelle, F. Donker Duyvis. His Life and Work, Publication series 2, No. 45; The Hague: Netherlands Institute for Documentation and Filing; 1964. p. 17.

  • Merriam-Webster. Acceded on: June 24, 2017. Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ quinzaine.

  • The accounts of the Conference are two. 1. ‘Organisation de la documentation technique et industrielle en France*, Documentation Technique et Industrielle, November—December 1920, 925—945. (This article has been given the IIB Publication No. 128a in the FID 75 Years of FID Publications but is there shown without place, publisher or date), the Mundaneum a typescript headed Conference Internationale de Bibliographie et de Documentation, September 1920. 2. Accounts are practically verbatim. In: Rayward, W.B. The Universe of Information: the Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organisation (FID 520), Moscow: All-Union Institute For Scientific and Technical Information (Viniti); 1975. p. 247.

  • Michailov AI. (1964). Donker Duyvis’ Contribution to the Progress of Scientific Information and Documentation*, F. Donker Duyvis: His Life and Work, Publication series, No. 45; The Hague; Nider, p. 32.

  • Lorphevre G. (1964). Donker Duyvis et la Classification Dccimale Universelle, F. Donker Duyvis.: His Life and Work, Nider Publication Series 2, No. 45; The Hague, Netherlands Institute for Documentation and Filing, 1964, p. 18. Also Bulletin d’aout 1924, Publication No. 140; Bruxelles: IIB; 1924. p. 9.

  • Rayward WB. The Universe of Information: the Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organisation (FID 520), Moscow: All-Union Institute For Scientific and Technical Information (Viniti); 1975. p. 289.

  • Robert Goldschmidt and Paul Otlet, Sur une forme nouvelle du livre: le livre micro-photographique... , Publication No. 81; Bruxelles: 1 IB, 1906.

  • Robert Goldschmidt and Paul Otlet, La Conservation et le diffusion Internationale de la penses; le livre microphotique, Publication No. 144; Bruxelles: 11B, 1925, p. 7.

  • Donker Duyvis F. (1940) The International Federation for Documentation*, Journal of Documentary Reproduction, III (1940), 183. See also Donker Duyvis to Godfrey Dewey, 14 February 1925, Dossier No. 259r, Dewey, Mundaneum.

  • Wright A. (2014). Cataloguing the world: Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age, New York: Oxford University Press, 202p.

  • Donker Duyvis to Godfrey Dewey, 14 February 1925, Dossier No. 259r, Dewey, Mundaneum.

  • Donker Duyvis to de Vos Van Steenwijk [English translation of Dutch text] 13 December, 1928. Ibid.

  • Rayward WB. (1975). The Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organisation (FID 520); Moscow: All-Union Institute For Scientific and Technical Information (Viniti), 314p.

  • ibid. p.313-16.

  • Rayward WB. ed. (2008). European modernism and the information society: Informing the present, understanding the past. Ashgate Pub. PMid: 19011712.

  • Buckland MK. (1997). What is a “document”? Journal of the American Society for Information Science (1986-1998). 48(9):804.

  • Satija MP. (2008). Universal Decimal Classification: Past and Present, DESIDOC Journal of Library and Information Technology, 28(6):3.

  • Hahn TB and Buckland M. ed. (1998). Historical studies in information science, New Jercy: Information Today, 24p. ISBN: 1-57387-062-5.

  • Richards PS, Wiegand WA and Dalbello M. ed. (2015). A history of modern librarianship: Constructing the heritage of western cultures, Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, 207-209p. ISBN: 978-1-61069-099-7. eISBN: 978-1-44083473-8.

  • Rayward WB. (1975). The Universe of Information: The Work of Paul Otlet for Documentation and International Organisation (FID 520); Moscow: All-Union Institute For Scientific and Technical Information (Viniti), p.327.

  • ibid. p.328.

  • ibid. p.329.

  • ibid. p.330.

  • ibid. p.331.

  • ibid. p.331-32.

  • ibid. p.334.

  • ibid. p.338.

  • ibid. p.339.

  • Frits Donker Duyvis, Google Scholar Citations; Acceded on: June 27, 2017. Available at: https://scholar.google.ca/ citations?user=fqX6bjkAAAAJ.


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  • Revisiting Duyvis:A Chemical Engineer’s Zeal to Organize Knowledge

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Authors

Bidyarthi Dutta
Department of Library and Information Science, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore – 721102, West Bengal, India

Abstract


This paper presents an analytical study on Frits Donker Duyvis’ role in developing and revising Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). Also, his role as Secretary General of International Institute of Bibliography (IIB) has been analysed. The IIB was formed in 12th September 1895 at Brussels actually to sponsor UDC. It was renamed as International Institute for Documentation in 1931. During Duyvis’ tenure in IIB, several controversies occurred with Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, the inventors of UDC. Otlet’s universal philosophy and notion of a great centralised bibliographic repertory confronted Duyvis’ pragmatic outlook, which is perhaps one of the most remarkable conflicts in the history of knowledge classification in IIB. The excerpts of some memorable letters of Otlet and Duyvis are presented here to present a layout of the historical conflicts took place centring the revision process of UDC. According to Ranganathan, Donker Duyvis was primarily a classificationist and not a grammarian of classificatory language. Several excerpts from different documents are presented to reckon that if Otlet was the first to understand that classification was at the heart of all documentation, it was Duyvis who made this finding in everyday practice.

Keywords


Dewey Decimal Classification, Duyvis, Faceted Classification, Frits Donker Duyvis, Henri La Fontaine, International Institute for Bibliography (IIB), International Institute for Documentation (IID), Melvil Dewey, Paul Otlet, Universal Decimal Classification, Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), Universal Repertory.

References