Paul Otlet

Name: Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet

Born: August 23, 1868, in Brussels, Belgium

Death: December 10, 1944 (Age: 76)

Computer-related contributions

• Father of information science.
• French-speaking Belgian author, entrepreneur, visionary, lawyer, and peace activist.
• Created the Universal Decimal Classification, one of the most prominent examples of faceted classification.
• Responsible for the widespread adoption in Europe of the standard American 3x5-inch index card used until recently in most library catalogs around the world.

Significant publications

• Essai d'universalisme (1935).
• Traité de Documentation (1934).