ApprenpiIx IX. 
REPORT ON CONGRESS OF ARCHIVISTS AND LIBRARIANS, AND CON- 
GRESS OF BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DOCUMENTATION. 
Sir: I have the honor to present the following report as the representative 
of the Smithsonian Institution at the International Congress of Archivists and 
Librarians and the International Congress of Bibliography and Documentation, 
held at Brussels, Belgium, in August, 1910. 
The Congress of Bibliography and Documentation, the first of the two 
congresses at Brussels, held its meetings from Thursday, August 25, through 
Saturday, August 27. On the printed list of members there were enrolled 24 
associations, bureaus, and other organizations; 34 individual libraries and 
other institutions; and 160 persons by name, including duplications on lists. 
Forty-six countries were scheduled as in relation with the congress or with the 
Institut International de Bibliographie, under whose auspices this congress 
was held, and there were actually present representatives from at least 16 
countries, including, besides the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, 
the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Bul- 
garia, Denmark, Norway, Monaco, and Turkey, about a hundred persons being 
actually present at most of the meetings. 
This congress was officially opened by M. Paul Otlet, one of the secretaries. 
He spoke of the work of the Institut International de Bibliographie in collect- 
ing catalogue cards for every known scientific publication and their arrange- 
ment according to the Dewey decimal classification system; also an auther’s 
catalogue arranged alphabetically; a collection of picture postal cards of 
institutions and public buildings from all parts of the world, as well as of 
prominent persons, and a collection of photographic negatives covering all 
subjects, from which prints could be made, for persons pursuing a certain line 
of study. He explained that by documentation was meant the collection and 
preserving for reference of a series of newspaper and magazine clippings with 
their illustrations. He referred to the International Exchange Service and 
mentioned in glowing terms the work of the Smithsonian Institution in organ- 
izing and conducting the service in the United States. The congress then pro- 
ceeded to consider the following subjects: 
I. Documents: 
1. Books, reviews, journals; 
2. Illustrations, foreign photographs; 
38. Archives, ancient and administrative. 
II. Works and collections: 
1. Editing; 
2. Library cataloguing. 
3. Collections; 
4. Wneyclopedic arrangement. 
III. Methods: 
1. Cards; 
2. Rules and classification. 
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