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INVENTOR

Paul Otlet

1868 - 1944

Photo of Paul Otlet

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Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet (; French: [ɔtle]; 23 August 1868 – 10 December 1944) was a Belgian author, entrepreneur, lawyer and peace activist; predicting the arrival of the internet before World War II, he is among those considered to be the father of information science, a field he called "documentation". Otlet created the Universal Decimal Classification, which would later become a faceted classification. Otlet was responsible for the development of an early information retrieval tool, the "Repertoire Bibliographique Universel" (RBU) which utilized 3x5 inch index cards, used commonly in library catalogs around the world (now largely displaced by the advent of the online public access catalog (OPAC)). Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Paul Otlet has received more than 173,133 page views. His biography is available in 26 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 25 in 2019). Paul Otlet is the 134th most popular inventor (down from 126th in 2019), the 183rd most popular biography from Belgium (down from 166th in 2019) and the 4th most popular Belgian Inventor.

Memorability Metrics

  • 170k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 58.16

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 26

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.17

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.01

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Paul Otlets by language


Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Paul Otlet ranks 134 out of 354. Before him are Robert Adler, Hugo Schmeisser, Henri Giffard, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, Robert Stirling, and Louis Le Prince. After him are Robert Moog, Gunther von Hagens, Johann Jacob Schweppe, Josiah Warren, John Ericsson, and Jang Yeong-sil.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1868, Paul Otlet ranks 58. Before him are Franz Ritter von Epp, Empress Dowager Longyu, Émile Chartier, Jane Avril, Olga Knipper, and Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom. After him are Henry Bergman, Ernst Linder, Alice Keppel, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ahmed Shawqi, and Noe Zhordania. Among people deceased in 1944, Paul Otlet ranks 83. Before him are Mildred Harris, Yvette Guilbert, Robert E. Park, Fritz Pfeffer, E. M. Antoniadi, and Ida Tarbell. After him are Milan Hodža, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Ulrich von Hassell, Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Artur Phleps, and Sergei Bulgakov.

Others Born in 1868

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Others Deceased in 1944

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In Belgium

Among people born in Belgium, Paul Otlet ranks 183 out of 1,019. Before him are Jan Matsys (1509), Godfried Danneels (1933), Constantin Meunier (1831), Gaston IV, Count of Foix (1422), Clara Peeters (1594), and Raymond Goethals (1921). After him are Roelant Savery (1576), Wilfried Martens (1936), Theodor de Bry (1528), Hugo Claus (1929), Melchior Broederlam (1355), and Johannes Tinctoris (1435).

Others born in Belgium

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Among INVENTORS In Belgium

Among inventors born in Belgium, Paul Otlet ranks 4. Before him are Adolphe Sax (1814), Jacques Piccard (1922), and Zénobe Gramme (1826). After him are Robert Cailliau (1947) and George Washington (1871).

Belgian born Inventors

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