Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T19:23:57.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Innovation for arts and sciences: new technology in the French national library

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Daniel Renoult
Daniel Renoult*
Affiliation:
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 11 quai François Mauriac, 75706 Paris cedex 13, France
Get access

Extract

Founded in the fifteenth century, the French national library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, is one of the oldest research libraries, and, as regards the size and variety of its holdings, one of the largest in the world. An on-going programme of modernisation based on a new strategy was initiated in 1988, the aims of which are to enforce collection development in a broader encyclopaedic sense, facilitate access to documents for the general public and researchers, allow remote access through new technology and develop scientific and technical networks in co-operation with national institutions and the international community. From 1992 to 1995, two new buildings were created: one very large library (3,700 seats) located on the east side of Paris at Tolbiac, the François Mitterand Library, will house the 10 million books of the heritage collection and audiovisual documents; another new building, for conservation workshops, scientific laboratories, and new stores, the Centre Technique du Livre, is located on the outskirts of Paris, at Marne-la-Vallée. After the major book removal operation planned for 1998, the historic building in the rue de Richelieu will be devoted to special collections and will also house INHA, the new national institute for art history.

In 1996, the first workshops at Marne-la-Vallée became operational and the general public level of the François Mitterand Library was inaugurated. The research level will follow in October 1998. Implementation of stage three of the audiovisual system, the new information system, will also begin in 1998, the year in which it is foreseen in addition that the new French union catalogue and the digital library will be made available to the public. All these projects aim at improving and enlarging the information services provided both to the general public and the scientific community.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 23 , Special Issue 3: Special issue: Art libraries and art librarianship in France , 1998 , pp. 20 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

1. The updated text of a paper presented to the 5th national meeting of the Sous-Section des Bibliothèques d’Art, Association des Bibliothécaires Français, L’avenir du passé: les nouvelles technologies, in Paris, 19th September 1997. This was published in French in Bulletin d’informations de l’Association des bibliothécaires français no. 178 1er trimestre 1998, p.14–16.Google Scholar
2. The website address is http://www.bnf.fr Google Scholar
3. Address http://www.gallica.bnf.fr Google Scholar

Bibliography

1. Beaudiquez, M. ‘Le chantier conversion retrospective de la Bibliothèque nationale’. Bulletin des bibliothèques de France, vol. 38 no. 3 1993, p.8–19.Google Scholar
2. Blasselle, B. and Melet-Sanson, J. La Bibliothèque nationale, mémoire de l’avenir. 2nd ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.Google Scholar
3. Blasselle, B. La Bibliothèque nationale. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1989.Google Scholar
4. Duchemin, P-Y. ‘BN - OPALINE’. Bulletin d’informations de l’Association des Bibliothécaires Français, no. 163 2ème trimestre 1994, p.23–27.Google Scholar
5. Moret, Y. ‘Le Catalogue Collectif de France’. Bulletin d’informations de l’Association des Bibliothécaires Français, no. 172 3ème trimestre 1996, p.38–39.Google Scholar
6. Renoult, D. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France: a National Library for the XXIst Century. Rational space: library buildings in the XXth century. A book to be published by McFarland, , end-1998.Google Scholar
7. Renoult, D. ‘The digitizing program of the French national library’, Journal of processing and management (Tokyo), vol. 38 no. 11 February 1996, p.981–985.Google Scholar
8. Salomon, S. ‘La Bibliothèque Nationale de France: une nouvelle bibliothèque, un nouveau système d’information’. Paper given at the IFLA annual conference, Beijing, 1996.Google Scholar