International Federation for Documentation

(FID; Federation Internationale de Documentation), an international organization incorporating the leading documentation centers and libraries that work in the area of documentation and scientific-information activity. It was founded in 1895 in Brussels by P. Otlet and H. Lafontaine as the International Bibliographic Institute (renamed the FID in 1938). Structurally the FID consists of administrative bodies, 31 committees, and two commissions. It numbers (1970) 50 national members (from the USSR, the All-Union Institute of Scientific and Technical Information) and more than 220 members (organizations and individuals interested in the work of the FID).

The FID coordinates scientific-information activity, organizes the training of personnel, and regularly reviews and revises the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC). Conferences (or congresses) are held every two years (the first in Brussels, 1895; the 36th in Buenos Aires, 1970). The secretariat of the FID is in The Hague, the Netherlands. The FID issues a bulletin called News of the FID, transactions of conferences, collections of articles, textbooks, official publications of the UDC, and materials on its revision.