The International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID) was an international organization that was created to promote universal access to all recorded knowledge through the creation of an international classification system. FID stands for the original French Fédération internationale de documentation.

Historical Background of FID

FID was established on 12 September 1895, in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, as the International Institute of Bibliography (originally ''Institut International de Bibliographie'', or IIB) by two

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

lawyers,

Paul Otlet Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet (; ; 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 infor ...

(1868–1944) and

Henri La Fontaine Henri La Fontaine (; 22 April 1854 – 14 May 1943), was a Belgian international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau. He received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913 because "he was the effective leader of the peace movement in ...

(1854–1943). It was popularly known as the Brussels Institute. Its headquarters was changed to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

after 1934. It had gone through a number of changes in name that reflect changes of conceptualization of the field in which it operates. The changes in names and years are : *1931 – The International Institute for Documentation (Institut International de Documentation, IID) *1937 – The International Federation for Documentation (Fédération Internationale de Documentation, FID) *1988 – The International Federation for Information and Documentation (Fédération Internationale d'Information et de Documentation, FID) The Institute was one of the sponsors of the first

World Congress of Universal Documentation The World Congress of Universal Documentation was held from 16 to 21 August 1937 in Paris, France. Delegates from 45 countries met to discuss means by which all of the world's information, in print, in manuscript, and in other forms, could be effi ...

, held in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1937. FID was dissolved in 2002.

Publications

One of the publications of FID was ''FID Communications''.

References

W. Boyd Rayward
*Keenan, S. (2003). FID (Federation Internationale de Documentation). ''In'
International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science.
2nd ed. Ed. by John Feather & Paul Sturges. , London: Routledge (pp. 196–198) Organizations established in 1895 Organizations disestablished in 2002 Non-profit organisations based in Belgium History organisations based in the Netherlands Organisations based in The Hague Archivist associations 1895 establishments in Belgium {{int-org-stub