Couzinet, Viviane
On Traité de documentation. Le livre sur le livre. Théorie et pratique by Paul Otlet
- 2021.
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Paul Otlet in his Traité de documentation. Le livre sur le livre. Théorie et pratique (1934), defines the means of knowledge sharing to be developed on a global scale in order to ensure peace. He thus provides his answer to the question: what is documentation? The science which serves as a framework has its object the book or document. Entitled Bibliology or Documentology, the two expressions are here synonymous, it is considered from a theoretical point of view. He explains its method, Bibliometrics, the history of its objects and its relationship with other sciences. The Repertoire Bibliographique Universel listed in the World Documentary Heritage, is the technical part which makes exchanges possible. Based on the cooperation of national libraries, supplemented by directories of sources, it is, in fact, the World Documentary Directory. Its organization has assumed a concerted evolution and harmonization of the method of writing the files that make it up. Its space is the Mundaneum, a world city which brings together libraries, museums, university. The current observation of P. Otlet’s contributions is rooted in the neo-documentation movement led mainly by Anglo-Saxon researchers. Referred to as “paper Google”, the RBU is considered the ancestor of the search engine.