Address given by Frédéric Mitterrand on the occasion of the press conference on the digitisation and valorization of BnF collections as part of the future investments programme

Dear René Ricol, each time I have a great pleasure to present to your
projects that are intended to be supported under the
investments of the future. You all know the ambition that is the
in the field of heritage digitization and dissemination
culture and knowledge. As soon as I joined the Ministry of
culture and communication, I wanted to make it one of the priorities of
my action. The convergence of culture and the digital world
in fact, it presents a triple challenge: a challenge for the development of the
literary and artistic creation; a challenge for research and
knowledge society; a growth challenge for our companies
and our economy at the time of what is sometimes called capitalism
cognitive.”

On 27 June, the President of the Republic drew up an initial assessment of
projects funded by the Future Investments Program. They
are a tremendous lever for innovation and project delivery
large-scale digital. They must enable our country to
continue to pursue a proactive policy. This gives our
EU partners the evidence of our convictions. It
is vital for the spread of our culture within this
the reality of the Francophonie. It is capable, finally, of arousing interest,
even to guarantee us respect from the major global players,
whether they are States or global companies.

Alongside the University, research, sustainable development, I
recalls that the digitization of cultural content is a component
investments of the future. Thanks to this policy, it
pride for France to be the first contributor to the
Europeana project, in particular through the contents of the portal
Departmental collections, INA resources and, of course,
collections of the National Library of France.

The BnF, in the spotlight today, has long demonstrated its
digitization know-how: you all know the
Jean-Noël, President-in-Office of the
Jeanneney, first designer of Europeana, defender of a great
European digital culture policy and today, yourself,
Bruno Racine, who has forged new collaborations with
major French publishers and make Gallica a digital library
one and a half million documents, one of the world’s first and
Europe, and the first in France.

It is therefore a major player, driving several major
international programs, which today offers to companies
The European Commission has been working with the European Parliament on a number of projects.

These partnerships with the private sector have multiple objectives.

The first is to scale up the national digitization effort. In 2007,
the State has set up an original financing mechanism that allows the
BnF to carry out an ambitious programme of digitization of books
EUR 7 million per year.

Today, it is a matter of accelerating the work undertaken. The BnF is thus
partner to take it to the next level in volume
as a variety of projects, in a more collaborative framework that will
to digitize and disseminate more works and
documents, old or more recent. From this point of view, this call to
partnership is fully in line with the logic that brought us, dear
René Ricol, to sign a memorandum of understanding with the
publishers, authors and BnF to digitize 500,000 unavailable books
twentieth-century.

The use of the future investment programme will constitute a
the digitization of the BnF’s collections. The
digitization of these sets should thus allow to triple the volume
Gallica, which is currently one and a half million
documents. The overall cost of these digitization programs is evaluated
150 million, the equivalent of more than 20 years of work, if
we had maintained the current pace of digitization.

I would also like to stress here that the various projects which will be
are specifically designed to exploit other
BnF as the only printed books. International debates on
Digital libraries almost made us forget that the BnF retained
priceless collections of press, audiovisual content and
manuscripts, photographs, maps and plans… The projects concerned
thus perfectly match the will of the Ministry of Culture to invest
the entire heritage and cultural field, not just the
book business.

This work will benefit other libraries, in Paris and in the regions,
municipal or university. They will
Indirect beneficiaries of the Future Investment Program.

Partnerships must enable skills to be federated
to move to a higher rate of digitisation,
also exploit content in a wider context, by integrating
content. It is also a matter of inventing a more
wide variety of business models for the benefit of Internet users and
researchers and all our fellow citizens, to create
a global digital offer that today’s Internet user calls for
vows.

These economic models will also have repercussions
on the modernization of the operation of the institution,
since BnF will have to subsidiary its activities in the sector
market. It will be necessary for the establishment to create a
commercial company both to contract with its partners and to
allow the CGI to intervene, which, I repeat, according to the
investor model. The CGI will intervene to capitalize the
several million euros subsidiary.

This is a significant shift in library culture.

I asked Bruno Racine to lead this reform by involving
fully the BnF agents and in strict compliance with the missions
I know that he will ensure that these new
digital challenges are addressed with commitment and conviction
necessary, but also with all the necessary caution to ensure
not to unbalance this historic institution.

I would like to thank you, dear René Ricol, and all of your
teams, to have fully understood the uniqueness of the
cultural projects. In recent months, you have proposed a framework
adapted support, likely to mobilize financing
extremely important as we have seen recently with the
support for digital projects of the holders of works
cinematographic.

In conclusion, I would like to recall the principles that govern
of the State, and more particularly of my ministry and its
operators, in the context of future investments. This is primarily a question of
to adopt a transparent and fair approach that allows all
economic actors to compete on equal terms and, to citizens, to
know the intentions of the State in the management of the
Nation. Partnerships must be balanced and the benefits
granted to companies carefully proportionate to the investment
and the risks they accept to take. Then, for the State
maintain overall control over its dissemination strategy, in particular
in the case of works in the public domain which, by definition, belong to
to all. In this regard, I would like to commend the work done by
Marc Tessier in 2009 on the digitization of written heritage, then by
Maurice Lévy, at the European level, in 2010. Marc Tessier’s report
remains the main thread of my action. He was indeed able to recall some
major founding principles, in particular, for those wishing to contract with
a public actor, the imperative need to respect the law and the law
author.

With this call for partnerships, the path taken by the BnF is a path
ambitious and demanding. It is also full of great
promising. It presupposes imagination and a true spirit
from those who wish to join it. I am
however convinced that the treasures offered to them and that, dear
Bruno Racine, you will detail in a few moments, deserve it
largely.

I would like to conclude, dear Bruno Racine, by saluting your very recent
election to the presidency of the European Conference of
national libraries: it is a recognition of the action
led by France and BnF for many years as well
that a more personal tribute from your peers. Thank you.