FYI France: President's Report, Conseil Sup. des Bibl.(pt.1of2)

[Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.SF.CA.US>]

FYI France: President's Report, Conseil Sup. des Bibl.(pt.1of2)

from:   Jack Kessler
        kessler@well.sf.ca.us

There are few better means of keeping up with French library events,
and now with networked information news, than by regularly reading the
_Rapport du Pre'sident_ of the Conseil Supe'rieur des Bibliothe`ques
(full citation appears below). This annual report is short,
comprehensive, and elegantly written by Michel Melot, former
Conservateur of the Bibliothe`que Nationale's Cabinet des Estampes,
then first Head Librarian of the Centre Pompidou's Bibliothe`que
Publique d'Information, and now President of the CSB and a leading
French library figure. In his "Rapport", Melot provides, every January,
a full statement of the French library events of the preceding year.
His indications of remaining issues provide the best hint of the
problems likely to be undertaken by the French library community during
the current year.

The table of contents and translations of three sections of the most
recent report -- the Introduction and sections entitled "The
Development of Electronic Networks" and "The Weakness of Music
Libraries" -- follow:

***

(from the Rapport du Pre'sident 1993, published last month, by the
Conseil Supe'rieur des Bibliothe`ques, written by Michel Melot,
translated by jk:)

Introduction

The libraries of France confront some difficulties, along the road to
their recovery. The old quantitative targets have not yet been
attained, and now they must be corrected in the face of changes in the
economy and in library techniques.

Library staffs have grown, but library education has yet to find either
its basic foundation or some commonly - accepted goals: it still needs
to be stabilized. In addition to these recruitment and development
difficulties, which one hopes are temporary, there are other weaknesses
throughout the library world, primarily at the base and the summit of
the discipline: research in information science remains inadequate, so
that France remains on the outside of important international debates,
while at entry - level the most numerous of the profession's personnel
still await recognition of their increasing importance and
specialization.

The push for public literacy goes on, taking on new directions and
nourishing new reflections, even though the working budgets of local
governments leave much to be desired: full measure can't be taken of
their work simply by counting up quantities of acquisitions and opening
hours. In his reception for the Conseil Supe'rieur des Bibliothe`ques,
only days after his taking office, the new Minister of Culture and
French Language approved of the priority which is being given to
literacy, but he asked how this task might be reconciled with limited
means, and whether it would be possible to define a library formula
which would not discourage the least - rich or less - decided local
authorities, and still might provide the spark for literacy, while
working together with other cultural institutions.

We must not slow down our budget efforts, particularly the increases
achieved in the number of library positions, as France is behind the
other countries of Northern Europe, even with the recession which is
hitting them, and also because it is more necessary than ever to plan a
better arrangement of resources, a better organization of tasks, a
better connection of libraries among themselves (to this end anything
which can be done for cooperation among libraries will be an investment
in the economy and efficiency of their future), and perhaps new methods
of governing and functioning and assisting one another.

In university libraries, where the emphasis is placed on increases in
acquisitions and opening hours, library jobs are sacrificed for library
building projects which rise very slowly from the earth. Library
architecture better designed for controlling costs of surveillance and
public service, the development of dial - in services, the improvement
of control and consultation tools, and coherent general plans, are the
order of the day if we wish to give the students, instructors and
researchers access to their work tools, according to their levels of
need and the demands of their disciplines.

The Bibliothe`que de France, finally, has taken the necessary step of
merging with the Bibiothe`que Nationale. Thus reassured, the
Bibliothe`que Nationale de France finds itself at a new beginning, and
now may deploy its services without neglecting either its national role
or its international role, at a moment when it is not easy to foresee
which services must be rendered at home and which might be developed
for international application.

Book borrowing, in the past, has opposed many of the other interests in
the book: this difficulty has been, and is still, the occasion for our
taking measures too often founded upon our weaknesses and our ignorance
of the other point of view, and for compromising principles in the face
of the realities of our missions. To avoid this common problem, the use
of electronic documents, which has become the necessary route for both
book - making and the transmission of texts, affords an opportunity for
isolating some of the more ancient professionals for the benefit of a
new generation of librarians.

Libraries -- public, school, university, national, or specialized --
have their place in all of today's grand debates, whether they are
concerned with maintaining social cohesion, or with fighting
inequalities, or providing continuing education, promoting development,
inventing Europe or "reinventing" the French nation. To participate
actively in these debates, librarians need to be well - situated, in
their own services and in their missions, able to unite and at the
same time maintain their individual views. The views expressed by the
Conseil Supe'rieur des Bibliothe`ques have as their goal the support
of such participation.

The difficulties which are to be encountered should not be concealed,
but they should not be allowed to turn us from our goals: French
libraries without doubt have much to learn, but they also have much to
teach. They must not underestimate, if they are to progress further,
either that which they must achieve, or that which they already have
achieved.


Table of Contents

I.      The Role of the State with regard to Public Libraries
II.     Book Borrowing in Libraries
III.    Librarian Education
IV.     The Bibliothe`que Nationale de France
V.      University Libraries
VI.     The Handling of "Grey Literature"
VII.    European Programs of French Libraries
VIII.   School Libraries and Literacy
IX.     Children's Libraries
X.      Other Questions Considered by the Conseil Supe'rieur des
        Bibliothe`ques


[From the final section, "X. Other Questions Considered by the Conseil
Supe'rieur des Bibliothe`ques":]

The Development of Electronic Networks

The generalization of communications by the electronic networks, in the
world of research, permits access to principal sources of knowledge,
the direct exchange of information, and the global and immediate
diffusion of research results, and is in the process of transforming
the trades of publishing, of distribution, and of documentation.

The initial reports emphasized the new idea that the researcher, in
direct contact with documentary resources, and mastering particular
tool of composition and its circuit of distribution, might be capable
today of leaving behind all librarians, publishers, and booksellers.
The reality, more complex, shows that each of these actors remains
indispensable and reappears in her same place, although she must modify
her practices and acquire new skills.

The great publishing houses are preoccupied actively with all of this,
in alliance with the principal distributors of specialized periodicals,
and with the American bibliographic networks. Thus the publisher
Springer and the University of California have combined with a Bell
company for the electronic distribution of periodicals on campuses,
featuring personalized subject access; OCLC, _Chemical Abstracts_,
Cornell University, and Bellcore, have inaugurated the diffusion of
current and illustrated periodical collections; OCLC, _Current Clinical
Trials_ and the American Association for the Advancement of Science
provide fulltext searching from illustrated summaries, using hypertext,
and with gateways to other databases; the English network JANET is
experimenting with a service offering the on - screen consultation of
periodicals through a system showing first their covers and tables of
contents; the publisher Elsevier, already pursuing its Adonis editions
-- offerings of medical periodicals on compact disks -- offer 42 of
their 1,100 titles via electronic access, and is launching with
Pergamon the CODAS service, of electronic document delivery in
Materials Sciences, etc.. Subscription services (Ebsco, Blackwell,
Swets, Faxon) are evolving toward new notice and bibliographic
services, and electronic distribution of articles and texts.

In the library world, the document delivery establishments, the British
Library (BLDSC) and the CNRS (INIST) above all, are among the first to
try to adapt to these new possibilities. But the rest of the librarians
and publishers also must find their places in this new territory. The
risk exists today, for the librarians, of finding that the users will
ignore them, preferring to try their own research skills, the skills of
specialists in their areas, and those of engineers able to open paths
for them into electronic documentation.  Free access to fulltext brings
to librarians the same hope and the same potential embarrassments
which, a short time ago, were provided by free access to the
bookstacks, obliging them to change their manner of dealing with the
public, to modify their tools, and to present their work as mediators
entirely differently.

The recent declarations of the American Vice - President Albert Gore on
the de - regulation of telecommunications in the United States, and the
significant government financing devoted -- as much by the government
as by universities and private corporations -- to perfecting and
securing general access to and acceptance of the networks, can only
increase a movement which already is growing explosively.

(Next: the French librarians' e-conference, BIBLIO-FR, conclusion of
the Conseil's views on library and information networking, and "The
Weakness of Music Libraries".)

***

FYIFrance e - newsletter        ISSN 1071 - 5916

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