IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jamest/v48y1997i4p301-309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

P. Otlet's Mundaneum and the international perspective in the history of documentation and information science

Author

Listed:
  • Isabelle Rieusset‐Lemarié

Abstract

According to Paul Otlet, in order to face the worldwide interdependence which was evidenced in the First World War, we need an international center for the storage and dissemination of knowledge: The Mundaneum (1928). To study this utopian project is to study how positivism, centralism, and monumentalism have determined Otlet's international perspective. His project of a colossal Bibliopolis contrasts very much with the position of Georges Bataille (a French writer who was librarian at the Bibliothèque Nationale from 1922 to 1942) who denounced the totalitarian threat of centralized monumental structures. But we show that, in spite of his centralism and his monumentalism, Paul Otlet foresaw our world‐wide networked environment and that his three‐dimensional conception of information can be still useful for developing Computer Assisted Palaces of Memory connected to International Virtual Libraries. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabelle Rieusset‐Lemarié, 1997. "P. Otlet's Mundaneum and the international perspective in the history of documentation and information science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 48(4), pages 301-309, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamest:v:48:y:1997:i:4:p:301-309
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199704)48:43.0.CO;2-#
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199704)48:43.0.CO;2-#
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199704)48:43.0.CO;2-#?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jamest:v:48:y:1997:i:4:p:301-309. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.