[13611] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: Biblio-Fr -- the list, and the archive
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Thu Nov 16 20:05:02 2000
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 14:42:36 -0800
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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FYI France: Biblio-Fr -- the list, and the archive
* Yes, the BnF / Bibliothe`que Nationale de France is back up and
running, both virtually and really... The fire, system outage,
faulty air conditioner, strike (latest), and other disasters all
appear now to have been resolved, and the BnF -- including
Gallica (online digital images and texts) and the CCFR (the
French national union catalog, discussed in FYI France of
September 15, 2000) -- once again is open for business...
http://www.bnf.fr -- one - stop - shopping, see also,
http://gallica.bnf.fr/
http://www.ccfr.bnf.fr/
* And no it is not yet clear just who has won the US presidential
election -- now Fidel Castro is offering the US advice on how to
run a democracy, and he is suggesting that Cuba send some
elections inspectors to Florida, just to ensure that the vote
counting there is honest... and so are the Russians...
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001109/el/eln_cuba_us_elections_2.html
* In troubled and uncertain times it is nice to have something
dependable to rely on. In things librarianly, French, and
bookish, I have relied on the French librarians' econference,
Biblio-Fr, since its inception in 1993.
So I thought I would tell FYI France readers, here in this issue,
a little more about Biblio-Fr -- both because it is such a useful
information resource and because, among the many resources which
I use myself for French information, Biblio-Fr over time has
proven to be one of the most consistent and reliable, consistency
and reliability being so much at risk these days in other arenas.
1) The Biblio-Fr Archive --
http://listes.cru.fr/wws/arc/biblio-fr
Biblio-Fr is run entirely in French, which makes things hard on
francophiles -- or francophobes -- whose command of the language
may be imperfect.
But the econference offers an excellent online archive. And over
time this online archive has grown enormously, so that it now
provides an outstanding resource -- one easily accessible online
to students and others just learning the language, and to people
reluctant to exhibit linguistic ignorance to the fastidious
French -- for news and debate, in - depth discussions, and
extensive job listings, conference announcements, and contact
information.
The Web interface for the Biblio-Fr archive (address above)
includes a sophisticated search engine. I wish that it offered
"conversation thread" searching, and global searching of its
entire database -- I can't seem to make either of these work,
myself -- but at least a user can enter a term and find a string,
without having to cull through acres of archival ascii.
So for a writer or student, anywhere, interested for example in
the history of the Bibliothe`que Nationale de France project --
the Tre's Grande Bibliothe`que -- and in the record of the many
controversies which have surrounded & still surround that, I can
think of few better resources to suggest than this archive: the
user just selects the year and month, plugs in "bibliotheque de
france", and up pops the historical record of French librarians'
nearly - live discussions of the project, as - it - occurred.
2) The Biblio-Fr list -- the Econference --
In addition to its archive, the Biblio-Fr online email - based
econference itself is an ongoing and very useful resource:
Biblio-Fr now has nearly 7,000 current subscribers, many hundreds
of whom participate actively in the daily discussions. Biblio-Fr
postings come in from all over the globe. There are active French
librarians, or at least people with active interests in library
and information happenings in France, scattered all over Africa
and the Americas, and in Australia and New Zealand, with a few
even in South and East Asia. Some of the most interesting
Biblio-Fr postings, for example, I myself think, come from the
Maghreb -- countries which are represented very little in my own
US "general" and certainly US "professional" media.
Disciplining all of this, so that it does not become merely one
of the Internet's undifferentiated floods of bits and bytes, is
the task of Biblio-Fr's very able Herve' Le Crosnier, at the
Universite' of Caen, who founded the list and has stuck with its
increasingly - heavy workload throughout its development.
Herve' edits submissions, contributes his own clarifying and
edifying comments, and even goes to the trouble of grouping
messages with similar content, all to minimize any Biblio-Fr
contribution to a user's information overload. The result is that
I receive only about a dozen Biblio-Fr email messages each day,
always well - disciplined and presented, nearly always
thoughtful, and -- rare for the Internet -- each unfailingly
relevant to the declared purposes of the econference.
The Biblio-Fr message groupings include [English tr. JK, see
http://listes.cru.fr/wws/info/biblio-fr] --
* "'Questions & reponses' : The nets offer above all a community
of skills, demanding participation and discussion..."
* "'Informations' : The broad diffusion of news concerning the
realms of documentation and information is one of the objectives
of Biblio-Fr. The list therefore carries the following sorts of
announcements: new services offered on the networks (online
library catalogs, online electronic documents archives,
ejournals, virtual and digital libraries, digital exhibitions);
conference programs; and any announcements concerning the future
of documentation and the circulation of information..."
* "'Debats et points de vue' : The nets allow us to reconsider
the methods and objectives of our professions, in information, in
documentation, in archives, and in libraries. Biblio-Fr will be
an arena for discussion of these issues. These debates also will
have a role as a sort of "continuing education" for information
professionals..."
The latest Biblio-Fr postings contain, for example, an eloquent
and passionate debate, in true classic French style, among
several strongminded and experienced advocates, over the "droit
de pre^t and the DGD / dotation ge'ne'rale de de'centralisation"
-- issues both of universal significance to library professionals
and users everywhere and of specific importance to current
librarianship and social policy debates in France.
And from Biblio-Fr there now are, in addition, "Jobilise" -- the
"jobs offered" announcements -- and "Infosite", announcing and
describing new online sites of interest, and "Synthese", in which
members summarize private communications which they have received
to questions which they posed originally on the general list.
A well - moderated and well - organized econference is the answer
of the Digital Age to "information overload", I always have found
myself. There now are thousands of econferences online, but few
of them are well - moderated and well - organized: for anyone
interested in its declared topics, of French library and
documentation and general "information" affairs and news -- or
for that matter to consider the question of online econferencing
generally -- Biblio-Fr is one of the best.
3) And there is a third resource offered by Biblio-Fr -- in
addition to, 1) the Archive and 2) the Econference -- which is
very useful to people who are online. This is the "foreign" view
offered by the Biblio-Fr discussions: even if you are not
particularly interested in France and the French, Biblio-Fr
offers a sophisticated and thoughtful "foreign" view to
developments in a technology which still -- numerous and
increasing exceptions notwithstanding -- overwhelmingly is Anglo
- American in origin and flavor.
So with a little French -- more common and easier, for many, than
other foreign languages -- a student can find on Biblio-Fr some
very strange / non - Anglo - American approaches to problems
which might otherwise be taken for granted, and in a digital
information setting every bit as advanced as the original Anglo -
American one is. There are plenty of other "non - Anglo -
Americans" out there rapidly getting introduced to all of this
now -- it might be nice / useful to consider, in advance, what
they are thinking about it...
4) Finally, there is a fourth "Biblio-Fr" consideration: the
Internet has been with us, as a commercial - uses - acceptable
and general - public - available resource, for nearly a decade
now, and personal computers and digital information have been
around even longer. Herman Hollerith's punchcard machine --
"chads" and all(!) -- and the original Jobs / Wozniak Macintosh,
both now occupy pedestals in the Smithsonian, and a few books
have been written. But really very little has been done, so far,
to document the history of the digital information revolution.
In the meantime, though, much is disappearing: in one of
history's greater ironies, the historical records of two of the
eras most devoted to the propagation and dissemination of
information now are in greatest danger of destruction -- the 19th
and 20th centuries' "printed paper" records are decaying now from
neglect plus acid paper depredations, and the 21st century's
nascent digital record is being destroyed daily now by the sheer
pace of change within the information industries, as legacy data
and programming and machines recede further and further from any
possibility of compatability with the latest platforms.
There is much need for history, and for historians, in this. A
resource such as the Biblio-Fr archive provides an historian's
goldmine -- for any researcher or student, in France or
elsewhere, interested in documenting the development of the
digital information era. Hopefully the archive will be mined for
this purpose before the platform changes again... or some
electrical fire takes place and no backup can be found... or
someone presses a wrong button and massively deletes something.
So, Writers!, take up your pens / keyboards; Researchers! get
that mouse - wrist working; Professors!, turn your students
loose... onto Biblio-Fr...
Certainly time better spent than watching CNN, trying to figure
out who will win the "banana republican" lawsuits in Florida...
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
--------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it
// \\ isn't going to make them money: if it is going
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in advance, and share some of the money which they get with me.
Use of material written by others requires their permission.
FYI France archives may be found at http://infolib.berkeley.edu
(search fyifrance), or http://www.cru.fr/listes/biblio-fr@cru.fr/
(BIBLIO-FR archive), or http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/pacs-l.html
(PACS-L archive) or http://www.fyifrance.com . Suggestions,
reactions, criticisms, praise, and poison-pen letters all will be
gratefully received at kessler@well.sf.ca.us .
Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
all rights reserved except as expressed above.
--hjlm--
