Paul Otlet, la CDU e la classificazione dei documenti amministrativi

The application of classification systems derived from Bibliography to archival materials, and in particular to current documents, is a recurring topic in the history of archival science. A significant attempt was promoted by the Belgian bibliographer Paul Otlet, who advocated the use of his Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) for administrative documents, thus for current archives, by defining specific desiderata and rules. The system was adopted by several Belgian administrations as well in other countries, thanks to the actions of some collaborators and a new system, named Décasépel, which had been directly derived from UDC. In general, however, the use of decimal and subject-based classifications for administrative documents has been limited and has been disapproved by several scholars because of their inherent characteristics, conceived for bibliographic and not for archival contexts