Visualising information

Those fond of cataloguing, classification, and visual education may be interested in exploring the Mapping knowledge: understanding the world through data exhibition which is currently on display at the Mundaneum in Mons, Belgium (last year’s ‘European Capital of Culture’). The Mundaneum represents Paul Otlet’s utopian vision for a world city housing the corpus of all knowledge, bestowing international organisation and dissemination practices.

I was fortunate to visit it in September last year – the space is wonderfully framed by the Universal Bibliographical System bibliographic index cards, and the exhibition explores Otlet’s visualisations of knowledge, as well as broader information-mapping praxis. If you won’t be adrift in Wallonia any time soon, check out the Mundaneum’s webpages which also proffer a captivating interactive infographic.

UCL Library Services has also recently acquired Alex Wright’s Cataloguing the world: Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age if you’re interested in reading more [record on UCL Explore here].

The exhibition remains open until 29 May 2016.

Useful links:

• Papova, M. (2014) The birth of the information age: how Paul Otlet’s vision for cataloging and connecting humanity shaped our world. Brain Pickings. [Online]. Available at: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/09/paul-otlet-alex-wright/ [Accessed 14 November 2015].
• Constant. (2015) Mondotheque. Femke Snelting. [Online]. Available at : http://snelting.domainepublic.net/category/affiliation-cat/mondotheque [Accessed 14 November 2015].
• Laaff, M. (2011) Internet visionary Paul Otlet: networked knowledge, decades before Google. Der Spiegel. [Online]. Available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/internet-visionary-paul-otlet-networked-knowledge-decades-before-google-a-775951.html [Accessed 14 November 2015].