Bibliothéque Nationale

Bibliothéque Nationale 

one of the world’s oldest and largest libraries; located in Paris. Established in 1480 as the Royal Library, it was renamed the Bibliothéque Nationale in 1795 by the Convention. In 1972 the library’s holdings included 7 million volumes, 155, 000 manuscripts, 6 million engravings and prints, 500, 000 periodicals, 800, 000 maps, and 450, 000 medals and coins. The library has received a deposit copy of every book published in France since 1537, with the exception of an interval from the late 18th century until 1810. Foreign publications consist for the most part of general works in all branches of knowledge and more specialized works in literature, history, and art.

The Bibliothéque Nationale comprises a department of printed publications with a rare books section; a department of new acquisitions; a periodicals department with a branch at Versailles (where seldom-requested material is also stored); a cartographic department; an engraving and print department, the oldest in the world; a manuscript department; a music department; a numismatics department; the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal; administrative and technical departments for restoration and photocopying; an international book exchange; and a central circulation department.

The library may be used by persons with a higher education or those presenting a written request from the head of a scientific institution. V. I. Lenin worked there in 1909.

Since 1897 the library has published the Catalogue général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothéque nationale: Auteurs, of which more than 200 volumes have been issued, and since 1960 the library has published the Catalogue général des livres imprimés: Auteurs, Collectivités auteurs, Anonymes, which appears in cumulative issues. The library is the center for national bibliographical information and participates in the publication of the Bibliographie de la France and Répertoire de la presse et des publications périodiques françaises. The Bibliothéque Nationale, together with the Sorbonne Library, maintains a union catalogue of the French and foreign periodicals available at 45 of the largest university libraries in France.

REFERENCES

Natsional’nye biblioteki mira: Spravochnik. Moscow, 1972. Pages 247–51.
Dennri, E. “Natsional’naia biblioteka v Parizhe.” Bibliotekovedenie i bibliografiia za rubezhom, 1972, issue 40, pp. 3–14.

O. I. TALALAKINA