The case of Paul Otlet,pioneer of information science,internationalist,visionary: reflections on biography

Abstract

The author takes as his point of departure his studies of Paul Otlet, co-founder of the present International Federation for Information and Documentation and the Union of International Associations, developer of the Universal Decimal Classification, theorist of 'Documentation', and pioneer of information science. Drawing on these studies he exam ines aspects of the art and scholar ship of biography, of the processes of research and imagination that it involves, especially: recognizing an appropriate subject and determin ing an approach to it, the problem of evidence and the frames of refer ence within which evidence is deployed, the personal involvement that develops between the subject and the biographer, and biogra phy's final goal of historical and personal understanding.