International Institute of Bibliography

The International Institute of Bibliography was established in Brussels in 1895 by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine. Created to promote a unified, international approach to bibliography and documentation, it became an early center for ambitious ideas about collecting, classifying, and sharing knowledge across borders.

One of its most lasting achievements was its role in developing the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), a system that grew out of earlier library classification methods and became widely used in libraries and information services. The institute also built the vast Universal Bibliographic Repertory, a huge card catalog intended to describe published knowledge on a global scale.

Over time, the organization evolved and was later known as the International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID). Today, it is remembered as a landmark institution in the history of information science, especially for its unusually modern vision of universal access to organized knowledge.