Hyperdocumentation

1Hyperdocumentation According to Paul Otlet

Paul Otlet is now known and recognized by information professionals such as librarians and documentalists as well as by key players in computing and Web development such as Google when it comes to the history of information processing tools. However, his writings have not always been examined with all due attention, outside of a few information science researchers and major works devoted to him (Rayward 1975 and Van Acker 2011). Indeed, it is often easy to extract a few quotations to present Otlet as a visionary of Internet networks, the Web and Wikipedia-type encyclopedias. But the study of Otlet’s writings and achievements actually shows a greater complexity of thought that remains influenced by the authors and theories of his time, but that projects itself beyond our current technical environments.

If we must resist at all costs wanting to re-read Paul Otlet in the light of our present time, we must admit that he was nevertheless able to anticipate some of our evolutions to the point that some of his remarks only become understandable today. This is the case of his description of hyperdocumentation, the objective of which is indeed to show a historical progressiveness of documentation and the use of documents during the different periods of human societies. Otlet thus begins to describe the first five stages that precede the final documentary stage:

The evolution of Documentation is developed in six stages. In the first stage, ...