INVENTOR

Paul Otlet

1868 - 1944

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Icon of person Paul Otlet

Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet (; French: [pɔl maʁi ɡilɛ̃ ɔtlɛ]; 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 183,914 page views. His biography is available in 26 different languages on Wikipedia. Paul Otlet is the 137th most popular inventor (down from 134th in 2019), the 191st most popular biography from Belgium (down from 183rd in 2019) and the 5th most popular Belgian Inventor.

Memorability Metrics

  • 180k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 58.65

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 26

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.91

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.94

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Paul Otlet ranks 137 out of 426. Before him are Richard Jordan Gatling, Gunther von Hagens, W. O. Bentley, Robert Moog, Zénobe Gramme, and Paul Baran. After him are Robert Cailliau, John Ericsson, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, Georg Luger, John Kay, and Sequoyah.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1868, Paul Otlet ranks 60. Before him are Eleanor H. Porter, Jane Avril, Olga Knipper, Louis Couturat, Émile Chartier, and Franz Ritter von Epp. After him are Francis Jammes, Ahmed Shawqi, Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr., Empress Dowager Longyu, and Noe Zhordania. Among people deceased in 1944, Paul Otlet ranks 84. Before him are Jakob von Uexküll, James McKeen Cattell, Viktor Ullmann, E. M. Antoniadi, Vera Menchik, and Thomas Midgley Jr.. After him are Bernardino Machado, Sergei Bulgakov, Harold Lowe, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Felix Nussbaum, and Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff.

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 191 out of 1,190. Before him are Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759), Pierre Alechinsky (1927), Zénobe Gramme (1826), Wilfried Martens (1936), Jacob van Artevelde (1290), and Jacques Arcadelt (1507). After him are Eden Hazard (1991), Sigfried, Count of the Ardennes (919), Robert Cailliau (1947), Constantin Meunier (1831), Gaston IV, Count of Foix (1422), and Juan de Flandes (1450).

Others born in Belgium

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Among INVENTORS In Belgium

Among inventors born in Belgium, Paul Otlet ranks 5. Before him are Adolphe Sax (1814), Étienne Lenoir (1822), Jacques Piccard (1922), and Zénobe Gramme (1826). After him are Robert Cailliau (1947), and George Washington (1871).

Belgian born Inventors

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