Caitlyn Haley
October 4, 2015
LIS 2000 Reflection Paper 1
In Alex Wright’s Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age,
Wright details the life and influences of Paul Otlet on the information and library field. Wright not
only introduces him to the reader, but he also situates Otlet with a host of other revered people
that are important to the information age, including H. G. Wells, Steve Jobs, and Ted Nelson.
This book covers a multitude of angles in Otlet’s life; Wright weaves through European and
American history, biographies, and discussion of how the evolution of technology affects
libraries and archives. This evolution certainly had an impact on Otlet’s life and Wright notes
that in his book. In the context of Paul Otlet’s life and the librarians and archivists that came
after him, the question is how, in the midst of so much innovation from other institutions and
organizations, can librarians and archivists provide easy access to scholarly and cultural
materials? Wright notes in his book that there are many unique ways this happens throughout
history: including creations of organizational systems (Melvil Dewey and the Dewey Decimal
System), cataloging systems to guide the arrangement of books (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz), and
providing the conceptual foundations of the Library of Congress catalog (Charles Cutter), to
name a few.
Of course, these three ways just mentioned are certainly not the only way librarians and
archivists have created easy and reliable access to scholarly and cultural materials. Indeed, it is
just the tip of the iceberg. Those three are just a quarter of the amount of people that Wright
discusses in his book. Melvil Dewey is one person that Wright notes and Dewey is one library
professional that make a big impact in the library and archival world in the form of information
retrieval. Not only did Dewey invent the Dewey Decimal system, but he also “established a
company called the Library Bureau, whose mission was to sell to libraries and other
organizations supplies such as catalog cards, drawers, “bureau boxes,” and other material to
help companies implement his scheme.”1 Dewey continued to be energetic and innovative with
his ideas for libraries, including his idea that libraries should get rid of wasteful methods and
instead receive a high degree of standardization that would be more productive for the library.
This is something that normally would not seem like it would help users with easy access, but
this idea helps de-clutter searching methods and tactics to provide a more efficient way to find
materials that are needed.
Another way that librarians and archivists are providing more efficient way to easy
access is seen through the efforts and works of Charles Cutter. Cutter stood out in this book
because of his lesser-known status than his friend Melvil Dewey. This is interesting, since
Wright notes in the book that Cutter’s work at Harvard Library and Boston Athenaeum led to the
foundations of the Library of Congress catalog system. Not only that, but in 1876, Dewey
“collaborated with Cutter to establish the American Library Association, the entity that would
ultimately give Dewey a vehicle for driving his agenda of institutional reform across the
American library world.”2 Cutter, along with Dewey, created a national platform for librarians to
discuss their ideas and thoughts about making libraries progressively better. This is a major
accomplishment in the information and library world and it should be noted as such. By founding
a national organization specifically for librarians, he made it accessible for information
professionals to bounce ideas off one another and in the end, help the user the most.
This book details not only the different ways that librarians and archivists make access
reliable and available, but it also talks about libraries and archives and the people that changed
and influenced them. Indeed, Wright “delivers a historical perspective that may not have been
1
Alex Wright, Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2014), 41.
2
Wright, Cataloging the World, 38.
introduced to many librarians who have studied in America.”3 Wright’s work is not only
informative about Paul Otlet and his life in Belgium, but also helpful to librarians in America. It
shows that librarianship is a global community and an international effort. Holly Mercer writes in
her article, “Almost Halfway There: An Analysis of the Open Access Behaviors of Academic
Librarians”, that “Research libraries have adopted new roles in the production, dissemination,
and preservation of the scholarly record, and academic librarians have assumed new
responsibilities.”4 Mercer notes that the role of librarian (in her case, academic librarians) is
constantly changing and evolving because of a multitude of factors in the information world.
Much like Mercer, Wright also touches on the evolving role of information and what that means
for librarians and archivists while trying to provide the best user-friendly access for patrons.
Finally, Philip Ball writes about Wright’s assessment of Paul Otlet. Ball notes, “Otlet sought to
collect everything--newspapers, books, pamphlets, photographs--and to devise a method of
categorization that would rival the Dewey decimal system.”5 This statement by Ball puts into
context the way Otlet fit in with the library world and how his methods were similar to a standard
library practice - the Dewey Decimal System.
Cataloging the World: Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age by Alex Wright is a
book that is helpful on so many levels to librarians and archivists. Not only does it mention in
detail about former information professionals that influenced the world today, but it also puts the
life of Paul Otlet in a historical perspective, which was fascinating to read. In addition to history
and library and archives, Wright also discusses the technological aspect of what Otlet was doing
and how that impacted the technological evolution of what librarianship is today. Wright notes
3
Smith, M. 2014. Cataloging the world: Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age. Vol. 52.
Middletown: American Library Association dba CHOICE.
4
Mercer, Holly. 2011. Almost halfway there: An analysis of the open access behaviors of academic
librarians. College & Research Libraries 72 (5): 443-53.
5
Ball, Philip. 2014. Forgotten prophet of the internet: Philip ball ponders the tale of a librarian who
dreamed of networking information. (INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)(Cataloging the world: Paul Otlet
and the birth of the information age). Vol. 509Nature Publishing Group.
that technology is ever evolving and changing the way users can access information. Librarians
and archivists continue to play a large role in accessing that information, as they find unique
ways to constantly improve the field of information. Whether it is Melvil Dewey creating
breakthrough organizational systems, Charles Cutter creating the conceptual foundations of the
Library of Congress catalog, or Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz inventing catalog systems to guide the
arrangement of books, librarians and archivists are still relevant in the information world by
responding to the challenge of users needing easy, rapid access to scholarly and cultural
resources.