CATALOGING THE WORLD

In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Paul Otlet, a librarian by training, worked at expanding the pote ntial of the catalog card, the world's first information chip. From there followed universal libraries and museums, connecting his n ative Belgium to the world by means of a vast intellectual enterprise that attempted to organize and code everything ever published. Forty y...[Read more]