Artspace's Library Science Series Presents A Film Screening and Discussion at the Ridgefield Library
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- Category: Education
- Last Updated on Sunday, 11 December 2011 19:06
- Written by Terri Garlick
On Monday, December 12th, at 7:00 pm, in the Dayton Program Room of the Ridgefield Library, there will be a Film Screening and Discussion of The Man Who Wanted to Classify the World (L'Homme qui voulait classer le Monde) by Francoise Levie (2002, 60 minutes). The discussion will be led by Dr. Gayle Bogel, Director of Educational Technology Program at Fairfield University.
This French film (with English and German audio tracks) is about Paul Otlet, a Belgian Utopian little known in America. Otlet invented an international classification scheme called Universal Decimal Classification used for books, photographs and other documents. He invented microfilm. He invented the ubiquitous index card catalog used in most libraries. But as he says in the film, "I think in terms of the universal" and his ambitions were much larger. Otlet began organizing existing international organizations into one grand inter-organization -- the Union of International Organizations -- which inspired the League of Nations.
But his most amazing invention (in retrospect) was his invention of hypertext, multi-media, and the web. He didn't use these words of course. He called it the International Network for Universal Documentation. To learn more about Paul Otlet, and to see what a visionary her was, click this link.
This program is part of the Library Science series presented by Artspace, New Haven's largest independent visual arts venue. No registration is required.
