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Public Libraries: After Mediatheques, What Next?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Anne-Marie Bertrand
Anne-Marie Bertrand*
Affiliation:
Ministère de la Culture, 27 avenue de l’Opéra, 75001 Paris, France
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Abstract

Public libraries in France are experiencing unprecedented growth: in 25 years (1971-1996) 1,400,000 m of accommodation has been constructed for municipal libraries (an increase from 355,000 m to 1,719,000 m2); staffing has grown from 3,000 employees to 17,000; the number of registered users has risen from 1,182,000 to 6,449,000. For all that, the situation does not give rise to unquestioning optimism. Two concerns exercise librarians and their governing bodies: on one hand the identity of the library, historically complex and currently more and more unsettled; on the other hand economic, technical and political developments which are creating growing tensions between the demands made on libraries and what they can actually supply.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , 1999 , pp. 19 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1999

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Footnotes

Revised text of a paper given 5th November 1998 at the colloquium Bibliothèques européennes: regards croisés, organised by the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information and the British Council in Paris.

References

1. Revised text of a paper given 5th November 1998 at the colloquium Bibliothèques européennes: regards croisés, organised by the Bibliothèque Publique d’Information and the British Council in Paris.Google Scholar
2. Unpublished contribution to the Comité interministériel sur la lecture publique, 19th January 1967.Google Scholar
3. For more information on specialised collections in municipal libraries, see Patrimoine des bibliothèques de France. Paris: Editions Payot, 1995. 11 vols.Google Scholar
4. Poulot, Dominique. Musée, nation, patrimoine. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.Google Scholar