Page 21 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Knowledge Organization: Classification and Cataloguing Theory

Notes

Notes After 1950, more elaborated terminology, such as “information science”,
“information storage and retrieval”, and “information management”, increasingly replaced
the word “documentation”.

1.5.2 From Documentation Back to “Document”

The problems created by the increase in printed documents led to the development of the
techniques of documentation. However, the rise of documentation led, in turn, to a new and
intriguing question that received little direct attention then or since.
Documentation was a set of techniques developed to manage significant (or potentially significant)
documents, meaning, in practice, printed texts. But there was (and is) no theoretical reason that
why documentation should be limited to texts; let alone printed texts. There are many other
kinds of signifying objects in addition to printed texts. And if documentation can deal with texts
that are not printed, could it not deal with documents that are not texts at all? How extensively
could documentation be applied? Stated differently, if the term “document” were used in a
specialized meaning as the technical term to denote the objects to which the techniques of
documentation could be applied, how far could the scope of documentation be extended. What
could (or could not) be a document? The question was, however, rarely formulated in these
terms.

An early development was to extend the notion of document beyond written texts, a usage to be
found in major English and French dictionaries. “Any expression of human thought” was a
frequently used definition of “document” among document lists. In the USA, the phrases “the
graphic record” and “the generic book” were widely used. This was convenient for extending
the scope of the field to include pictures and other graphic and audio-visual materials. Paul
Otlet, (1868-1944), is known for his observation that documents could be three dimensional,
which enabled the inclusion of sculpture. From 1928, museum objects were likely to be included
by document lists within definitions of “document”.
The overwhelming practical concern of document lists was with printed documents, so the
question of how far the definition of “document” could be extended received little direct attention.

!
Caution The occasional thoughtful writer would touch on the topic, perhaps because of
interest in some novel form of signifying object, such as educational toys, or because of a
desire to generalize.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

13. A document is the repository of an expressed thought.
14. Briet’s rules for determining when an object has become a document are made clear.
15. From 1918, museum objects were likely to be included by document lists within definitions
of “document”.

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