Paul Otlet - Lawyer, Father of Information Science, Grandfather of Search Engines

Otlet (far left) looking like he wants to get back to work already

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Paul Otlet's death. Responsible for the standardization of the 3" x 5" index card for the card catalog, creator of the Universal Decimal System, inventor of analog Google (Repertoire Bibliographique Universel), and pioneer in microfilm's use in the library, Otlet is kind of a big deal. His vision of what a library would and could be has changed the way we research, gather, and store information. Thanks to him, you could do a quick Wikipedia search and learn more about this lawyer turned information scientist!