Universal Decimal Classification as a standard for international intellectual cooperation: the global network’s project of Paul Otlet and the International Institute of Bibliography (IIB) at the beginnings of the 20th century

Abstract

Based on the Mundaneum archives, this paper will highlight the two dimensions of UDC: an intellectual standard for a global documentary network and a universal language able to represent not only the whole knowledge but also the diversity of cultures. According the first dimension, UDC is the result of the project to apply standardization to knowledge working (the first apparition of the phrase “knowledge worker is by Otlet). In the second dimension, UDC is an attempt to adapt Dewey Decimal Classification to universality. The combination of both dimensions was aimed to international intellectual cooperation which can be compared to interoperability’s issues of digital libraries on the internet.