Research

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” — T. S. Eliot, 1934.

“Who knows where knowledge may be had is near to having it.” — Paul Otlet, 1895.

Selected Articles, Books, Films, and Patents

Chronological List Compiled by Dr. Jeremy Swartz, University of Oregon

1876-1894

1895-1899

  • La Fontaine, Henri and Otlet, Paul. “Creation d’un Repertoire Bibliographique Universel: note préliminaire,” [“Creation of a Universal Bibliographic Repertory: A preliminary note.”] IIB Bulletin 1 (1895-96): 15-38. [This was issued separately for the International Conference of Bibliography in Brussels in 1895 and was published in 1896 as Publication No. l of The Office International de Bibliography. The text is followed by specimen tables of the Decimal Classification: a first table (10 major classes), a second table (100 major sub-divisions), a third table with 336, Public Services, subdivided to as many as 4 places after the decimal point, and a fifth table, a specimen of the index to the tables.]. In Otlet (1990). pp. 25-50.
  • Otlet, Paul. “Sur la structure des nombres classificateurs,” [“On The Structure of Classification Numbers”]. IIB Bulletin 1 (1895-96): 230-243. [This article is followed by one unsigned on how to prepare papers and journals in such a way as to assist the bibliographer in his work, particularly by assigning decimal numbers.] “Indexification décimale: regies pratiques et modeles,” IIB Bulletin 1 (1895-96): 244-249.
  • Otlet, Paul and Office international de Bibliographic. Regies pour les diveloppements d apporter d la Classification Décimale. [Rules for Developing the Decimal Classification]. Bruxelles: OIB, 1896. 13 pp. [Unsigned.]
  • James, William. Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results. The University Press, 1898.

1900s

  • Peirce, Charles S. “What Pragmatism Is.” The Monist 15, no. 2 (1905): 161-181.
  • Peirce, Charles S. “Issues of Pragmaticism.” The Monist, 15, no. 4 (1905): 481-499.
  • Goldschmidt, Robert and Otlet, Paul. (1906). Sur une forme nouvelle du livre: Le Livre microphotographique. [On a new form of the book: The microphotographic book.]. Publication No. 81; Bruxelles: Institut International de Bibliographic 1906. [Also published in IIB Bulletin 12 (1907):61-69, in the January 1907 issue of the Journal des brevets and in part in Photorevue, 6 January]. In Otlet (1990), pp. 204-210.

1910s

  • Dewey, John. How We Think. In The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924. Volume 6: 1910-1911, Essays, How We Think. (2nd Release). Electronic Edition. [First published by D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, 1910.]
  • Dewey, John. Science as Subject-Matter and As Method. In The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924. Volume 6: 1910-1911, Essays, How We Think. (2nd Release). Electronic Edition. [First published in Science, n.s. 31 (1910): 121-27. Reprinted in Journal of Education 71 (1910): 395-96, 427-28, 454; and in Characters and Events, ed. Joseph Ratner (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1929), 2:765-75, with the title “Science and the Education of Man.”]
  • Dewey, John. Contributions to A Cyclopedia of Education. In The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924. Volume 7: 1912-1914, Essays, Interest and Effort in Education. (2nd Release). Electronic Edition. [First published in A Cyclopedia of Education, ed. Paul Monroe. New York: Macmillan Co., 1912-13, Vols. 3, 4, and 5.]
  • Wiener, Norbert. “The Highest Good.” The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 11, no. 19 (1914): 512-520.
  • Wiener, Norbert. 1915. “Is Mathematical Certainty Absolute?” The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods. 12 (21): 568.
  • Otlet, Paul. L’Organisation internationale de la bibliographie et de la documentation. Publication No. 128; Bruxelles: IIB, 1920. 40pp. [This paper repeats almost verbatim substantial portions of Otlet’s “L’Organisation des travaux scientifique,” an address 2. given in Paris, 25 February 1919 and published in Volumes des conferences, 1918- 1920 of the Association francaise pour l’Avancement des Sciences (Paris: L’Association, 1919, pp. 15-50) to which he refers below.]
    • “Les problèmes internationaux et la guerre.” Tableau des conditions et solutions nouvelles de l’économie, du droit et de la politique. Paris, Rousseau, 1916 (2nd part, 3rd chapter: Intellectual Life)
    •  “Transformations dans l’appareil bibliographique des sciences,” Revue scientifique, Paris, April 1918
    • “l’lnformation et la documentation au service de l’industrie,” Bulletin de la Sociéité d’encouragement á l’Industrie nationale, Paris, 1 June, 1918
    • “Le Traitement de la littérature scientifique,” Revue générale des sciences, Paris, September 1918, “La Société intellectuelle des nations,” Scientia, Milan, January 1919
    • “L’Avenir du livre et de le bibliographic,” Bulletin de l’lnstitut International de Bibliogaphie 275-297
    • “L’Organisation des travaux scientifiques” (volume des Conferences l’Association française pour l’advancement des sciences, 1919)
    • “Les Association internationales et le reconstruction,” Revue génerale des sciences, 28 February 1919
    • Centre intellectuel mondial au service de la Sociéité des Nations, 1919, Publication No. 88 of the Union des Associations Internationales.

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960-1964

1965-1969

1970s

1980-1984

1985-1989

1990-1994

1995-1999

2000-2004

2005-2009

2010-2012

2013-2015

2015-2017

2018-2019

2020

“The distinction between knowledge, information, and understanding is not a complicated or philosophical matter. An individual may know all about the structure of an automobile, may be able to name all the parts of the machine and tell what they are there for. But he does not understand the machine unless he knows how it works and how to work it; and, if it doesn’t work right, what to do in order to make it work right. You can carry that simple illustration through any field that you please.

Understanding has to be in terms of how things work and how to do things. Understanding, by its very nature, is related to action; just as information, by its very nature, is isolated from action or connected with it only here and there by accident. […]

I would ask, then, how far are studies, methods, and administration of our schools connecting knowledge, information, and skills with the way things are done socially and how they may be done. For only in this connection of knowledge and social action can education generate the understanding of present social forces, movements, problems, and needs that is necessary for the continued existence of democracy.“

— John Dewey, 1937, “The Challenge of Democracy to Education,” p. 184.