Collections and aids to heritage acquisitions of French public libraries
Launched in 2004, this plan of the Ministry of Culture and Communication aims to better understand and improve the conditions for the conservation, reporting and enhancement of written heritage in the regions (more than 30 million documents kept in local authorities).
The written heritage of the State (manuscripts, printed books, periodicals, prints and photographs, cards, coins and medals, ...) comprises two distinct sets:
- Parisian collections, held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (approximately 30 million documents) and benefiting from the know-how and resources of the public institution
- des regional collections, entrusted to municipal libraries (also about 30 million documents) in more unequal conditions and with less overall means
Since 2005, the Book and Reading Service has organized annual information and study days dedicated to written heritage in the regions, in partnership with local authorities.
The purpose of these days is to bring together specialists in written and graphic heritage around scientific issues specific to library heritage collections, with a view to objectives :
- to confront the views of experts,
- to give a national echo of local experiences,
- disseminate the latest research findings among professionals interested in conservation
- to encourage the development of a dynamics of exchange and networks
- of educate elected officials library heritage issues.
French public libraries maintain very important heritage collections, that is to say collections to which a conservation decision with no time limit is attached.
Of an extremely diverse nature, these collections consist of manuscripts or prints of all kinds, autograph documents, prints, photographs, graphic documents, musical scores, maps and plans, coins and medals.
Their origin itself is very varied: collections from revolutionary confiscations (during the French Revolution), ministerial concessions (transfers from the Ministry of Public Instruction to libraries, in the XIXe century), confiscations of ecclesiastical property (following the law of separation of churches and the State, in 1905), free acquisitions (gifts, legacies, legal deposit), or onerous (purchases, dates).
Public-owned library heritage collections (whether public institutions such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bibliothèque Nationale Universitaire de Strasbourg, libraries of local authorities or universities) are in the public domain under Article L. 2112-1, § 10 of the Code général de la propriété des personnes publiques.
The public domain membership of these collections gives them a very strict protection regime, characterized by inalienability and imprescriptibility.
The heritage of these libraries is alive, it continues to grow, and the State contributes in a very significant way by various means:
. grant from the Ministry of Culture to the National Library of France.
. Grants to territorial libraries (municipal or urban communities) for Acquisitions of assets of national interest (A.P.I.N.), that is to say, documents to which their characteristics, seniority, rarity or origin confer a national heritage value. Between 2010 and 2020, the Book and Reading Service subsidized the acquisition of 56 documents or sets of such documents by 36 different territorial libraries.
. contribution of the Heritage Fund, created by the Ministry of Culture to financially support exceptional acquisitions. Several libraries have benefited from this device.
. State joint grants (at DRAC level) at parity with regional councils in certain French regions: these are the Regional Library Acquisition Fund (F.R.A.B.) that financially support heritage acquisitions by territorial libraries. In this way, FRAB contributes to the completion of existing collections of heritage documents (whether old, modern, or contemporary) and also accompanies the creation and enrichment of local and regional library holdings.
. By accepting that documents of high heritage value are received through the dation in payment of tax obligations, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 68-1251 of 31 December 1968 and its implementing decree No. 70-1046 of 10 November 1970, codified in the General Tax Code. Through this procedure of "dation in payment", important documents of high heritage value have contributed to the enrichment of library collections. , mainly those of the National Library of France, but also those of some territorial libraries. This is how the Municipal Library of Bordeaux received, in deposit of the State, an important set of manuscripts and prints from the library of Montesquieu, at the castle of the Brède.
The State exercises control over the movement of cultural goods that meet certain criteria of seniority and value.
Current legislation and regulations (Articles L111-1 to L111-7 and articles R111-1 to R111-16 du heritage code cultural property subject to certain restrictions on movement) are modelled on the Community Regulation 3911/92. The removal from the customs territory of cultural goods is subject to the authorization of the Minister responsible for Culture. Applications must be submitted to them (CERFA forms below):
- of certificate of free movement of cultural property Form application for a certificate of free movement of a cultural property
- oftemporary release of cultural property Form Application for Temporary Exit Authorization (TSA) of a cultural property
- ofauthorization for temporary removal from a national treasury (cultural property in a public collection): it is this form that should be used when a public library sends some of its works abroad for exhibition, restoration, or binding train. Form Application for Temporary Exit Authorization (TSA) from a national treasury.
- ofauthorisation for the export of a cultural property from the European territory (commonly known as a "licence") Form application for authorization to export a cultural property
The Book and Reading Service (Department of Libraries - Heritage Office) is thus responsible for controlling the circulation of printed or manuscript books, autograph documents, engravings, photographs, maps and plans, coins and medals. Near 3,800 certificates were issued in 2018, more than 38,800 since the legislation came into force in February 1993. Nomenclature of the category numbering cultural property as of July 1, 2011.
Approximately 0.2% of the refusal of certificates was declared by the Ministry of Culture for goods under the Book and Reading Service, after consulting the Advisory Commission on National Treasures. 70% of these assets, now ipso facto des national treasures, were acquired by the State for public collections (mostly by the BnF) after a highly supervised procedure.
Contacts in the book and reading department:
- Annette Daunas (01 40 15 73 63) for applications for temporary absences
- Valérie Langbour (01 40 15 75 74) for export certificates and permits for cultural goods
- Michela Rega (01 40 15 88 49) for export certificates and permits for cultural property
Consult the website of the Ministry of Culture on the movement of cultural goods
The Ministry of Culture supports the digitization of library heritage collections and encourages the dissemination of good practices in digitization and digital preservation.
The Ministry of Culture has been supporting the digitization of heritage collections in libraries, as part of a national digitization plan.
Since 2007, with funding from the National Book Centre, it has encouraged the development of the digital library Gallica, as well as the intensive digitization and dissemination, through this portal, of the collections of heritage prints of the National Library of France and documents under the rights of the French edition, with respect for rights holders.
It also ensures the use of standards and good practices in digitization and digital preservation.
It promotes the interoperability projects and wants to give greater visibility to the achievements by establishing a directory of digitized cultural holdings in a national catalogue, Digital heritage, with a European vocation (Michael Network).
Digital Libraries:
- Europeana, European Digital Library
- Gallica, Digital Library of Printed Heritage (BnF) and Contemporary French Edition
- Digital heritage, national directory of digitized collections of French libraries, archives and museums
- Illuminations, municipal library illumination database
- Virtual library of medieval manuscripts (IRHT). The book and reading service, MISTRD and theIRHT jointly sent a letter to heritage libraries in 2011 seeking their agreement to the online publication of digitized manuscripts in the BVMM as part of the IRHT campaign
For many years, the Book and Reading Service has supported research activities around written heritage, both in reporting programs and also in digitization. These programs result in the payment of grants from the Ministry of Culture to partner structures through the framework agreement that unites the Ministry and the CNRS.
Les Regional catalogues of incunabula of public libraries in France, published since 1979 under the aegis of the Directorate then of the Book and Reading Service, aim to give a standardized and scientific description of the incunabula collections held in all French libraries accessible to the public, whether they are public, university or private reading libraries. The collection currently has about twenty paper volumes and is the subject of a computerization program in XML-TEI intended to eventually feed the Catalogue collectif de France (CCFr). This program is conducted with the scientific support of Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance of the University of Tours.
Musical heritage in the region is another research program funded by the Ministry that aims to identify all the ancient musical sources, manuscripts or printed, preserved on the national territory. It gives rise to the publication of printed volumes region by region. His records, built on the model of those of the RISM, feed the base "Musical sources" of the CCFr. This program is conducted with the scientific support of the laboratory Institute for Research in Musicology (IREMUS).
In addition to these activities to report heritage holdings, mention should be made of the programme to reproduce illuminated manuscripts preserved in regions. A partnership between the Book and Reading Service and theInstitute for Research and History of Texts (IRHT) has made it possible to carry out campaigns for the reproduction and description of French illuminated manuscripts. The resulting images feed the Illuminations database.
Finally, the Biblidroit programme, developed in collaboration with theInstitute of Social Sciences of Politics, aims to produce a research report on contemporary issues in library law.
The State shall exercise technical control over the territorial libraries, which shall apply in particular to the conditions of conservation and to the restoration operations of the collections for which these libraries are responsible.
Engaged with the BnF in an active policy of support to the sites of cataloguing of the heritage collections of public libraries (Regional catalogues of incunables, Regional musical heritage, reporting of manuscript and archival holdings), the Book and Reading Service launched a national survey this summer to assess the volumes of heritage prints, manuscripts and archives still to be catalogued, as well as the catalogues of these collections still to be retroconverted.
On the basis of these results, the Book and Reading Service wishes to initiate a multi-year project to report these funds, managed at regional level by the book and reading advisors, in close collaboration with the BnF Cooperation Department and regional book structures.
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