[15715] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: combining college & public, in Clermont-Ferrand
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Tue Mar 15 20:26:56 2005
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Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:22:41 -0800
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@WELL.COM>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
FYI France: combining "college" & "public", in Clermont-Ferrand
Digital library work tends to gloss over traditional library
boundaries: "academic" versus "special", either of those versus
"children's", any of the above versus "public", and all the rest.
In the modern digital world though, it seems, everything and
everyone too often still gets poured into, and sometimes out of,
the same pot -- one size fits all -- or so far, anyway.
Librarians long have worried about combining their traditional
categories. The worries have been various: for instance that
different reading behaviors, and general behaviors, and book and
media tastes and usages, just don't mix -- that "children" are
too noisy for "grownups" -- that "student" study halls, and
student needs for multiple copies of academic texts, don't go
well with "general public" pulp fiction preferences -- that
"special" libraries are not general enough for most readers,
nor "general" libraries special enough for specialists.
So institutions offering imaginative combinations of the
traditional categories are interesting. And comparing these
across cultures -- as well as just across "media" and "platforms"
-- may yield something useful, too, for the time when "one size"
no longer fits "all", in digital libraries.
In France at Clermont-Ferrand, for example, the city and the two
universities there all combine forces in a single library system:
* the Clermont-Ferrand official city population is 140,000,
although including the surrounding area the population now
exceeds 300,000. It is a major agricultural and industrial
center: Michelin has been based in the city since 1832, and other
tire companies are there -- other city industries include
chemicals and clothing and bottled water.
* and the city is home to two universities, 5 "Grandes Écoles",
and over 35,000 students.
* the Clermont-Ferrand library, then -- since 1902 --
"La Bibliothèque municipale et interuniversitaire"
The City and Inter-University Library of Clermont-Ferrand
-- "a service-in-common of the City and of the University
of Blaise Pascal [Clermont-Ferrand II, founded 1974,
currently 16,000 students] and the University of the
Auvergne [Clermont-Ferrand I, founded 1806, currently
13,000 students]."
W3: http://bmiu.univ-bpclermont.fr/sommaire.htm
Catalogs: http://clercat.univ-bpclermont.fr/cgi-bin/abweb
* 8 university libraries plus two additional branches (at
Montluçon et Aurillac)
* A library service devoted to individual academic
departments (Faculty of Letters)
* A Local History department
* A Public Library department, including 2 médiathèques,
a "bibliobus" service, and 3 children's libraries
* An Archives department (Centre Henri Pourrat)
* A Documentation department (Centre international Blaise Pascal)
* A Copyright Deposit department (centre de dépôt légal imprimeur)
* A center for Cinema and "court métrage" ["shorts": see
"La Festival de Très Courts", at http://www.trescourt.com/]
* L'école des Beaux-Arts
The US has a new library system which is trying to achieve much
the same sort of "academic" / "public" library combination as
that offered by Clermont-Ferrand: in San José, California --
* the San José California official city population is about 1
million; although recently San José has become the unofficial but
functional capital of a rapidly-growing San Francisco Bay Area
"urban region", of 7 million inhabitants, in which San Francisco
itself is only one outlying inner city neighborhood now... and
that region encloses both the old Silicon Valley and the newer
Biotech development which rapidly is engulfing it... so there is
nothing at all "typical" about San José California...
* and San José is home to one campus of a California state-wide
university system -- one of two such systems, the other being the
"University of California" -- and "San José State University"
educates about 27,000 students, year-round. Again, though, and
very unlike Clermont-Ferrand, San José's "Bay Area Region" is
home to dozens of other universities, as well, and colleges, and
institutes, and their students: among these 5 other campuses of
the California State University system, 19 campuses of the
California Community College system, 5 campuses of the University
of California, Stanford University... So, plenty of students:
plenty more than in Clermont-Ferrand -- not all of whom might use
the San José Library, but true comparisons can be difficult...
* the San José library, then -- since 2003 --
"SJLibrary.org"
-- "...bringing you the combined resources of San José
Public Library System and San José State University..."
W3: http://www.sjlibrary.org/
catalog: http://mill1.sjlibrary.org/search/
* Book Browser -- [An online "pathfinder" providing
user-assistance for finding "a good book to read"]
* Bookmobile -- ["Bibliobus"...]
* Computer Access -- [Laptops, printing, the Ouebbe -- it
seems that "computer" cuts across all library user
groups, that all need it, but do they all need it in
exactly the same ways?]
* Course Reserves -- [Books for student classes: the
"academic" side, in the San José experiment.]
* Disability Services -- [Like computers, a library
service which appears to cut across all library user
groups: all need it, but do they all need this service in
exactly the same way?]
* Distance Learning -- [An interesting innovation, at San
José: "distance learning" has taken off, in the US, as a
new and exciting although in many ways problematic
departure in education generally. (The highly-successful
Apollo Group and their University of Phoenix -- stock
symbol APOL, now 30,000 employees and over 250,000
students -- originally was the idea of a professor at San
José State...) The Library offers, to San José "distance
learning" students,]
* Welcome to the SJSU Distance Learning Library!
Here you will find links to services and
resources to help you complete your distance
coursework successfully.
* Distance Learning Services
List of distance education services, including
Interlibrary Services and Course Reserves.
* Connect from Home
How to manage your library account and access
databases online.
* Research and Writing Aids
Tips for starting your research, obtaining
materials, and writing your papers.
* Contact Your Subject Specialist
SJSU reference librarians listed by subject.
* Distance Education Curriculum
Link to eCampus, SJSU's distance education website.
* Distance Learning Faculty
Faculty-specific resources and services.
* Faculty Services -- [for example,]
* Purchase Requests for Library Materials
* Faculty Publications Database
* Contact a librarian in your subject area
* Instruction & Training Classes -- [library & Internet]
* Literacy Services -- [The US is home to many people,
now, who cannot read, and / or who cannot read in English. ]
* For Adults
* For Families
* For Parents Seeking Quality Early Care and Education
* For Child Care Providers
* For SJSU Students and Faculty
* Meeting Rooms -- [for student study, community meetings]
* Reference Help -- [one traditional "library" function]
* Request Material Beyond SJLibrary -- [Inter-Library Lending]
* Youth Services -- [not just "students"...]
So, how does all of this work? And how well does it work
_together_: in Clermont-Ferrand? or in San José?
Are there fundamental cultural and political and institutional
differences between the two examples, French and American? Yes.
A "bibliothèque municipale" in France and the "public library" of
an American city are very different, in fundamental respects --
just as a French "bibliothèque universitaire" and an American
"academic library" are very different -- historically,
institutionally, culturally, financially.
But are there also bases for comparisons, and for each side
learning tricks from the other, and for each avoiding costly
mistakes which the other might already have made? Yes, as well.
For instance San José's "distance learning" projects might be of
great interest to the people at Clermont-Ferrand... And the
experience of over 100 years, at Clermont-Ferrand, in combining
"general public" users with "students", might be reassuring -- or
in some respects distressing, but at least for interesting and
useful reasons -- to people in San José, and elsewhere, who might
be trying the same sort of thing, now...
And, online, digital library developers might look at both
situations -- both the French and the American "academic/public"
library combinations -- before trying too nimbly and glibly to
offer simply a "one size fits all" digital solution, to some
strange amalgam of Internet library users.
The idea is not new but old. And it has been carefully considered
and even studied in depth: both by very new projects using the
latest techniques, and by very old projects benefiting from the
accumulated experience of a century or more. Mistakes might be
avoided, and money saved, by considering the history.
Two references, then, to a literature on combining different
sorts of "libraries" which is as fascinating as it is extensive:
-- for Clermont-Ferrand, and the French experience --
* Annie Le Saux, "Bibliothèques d'étude, bibliothèques de lecture
publique: Complémentarité, coopération, fusion ?" in _Bulletin
des Bibliothèques de France_ (Paris : Ecole Nationale Supérieure
des Sciences de l'Information et des Bibliothèques / ENSSIB,
2005) t. 50 n° 1, p. 93-94, ISSN 0006-2006.
http://bbf.enssib.fr/bbf/html/2005_50_1/2005-1-p93-lesaux.xml.asp
The BBF's Le Saux reports here on an Association des
Bibliothécaires Français / ABF (Paris group) meeting,
held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France last October
14, on the general question of "the separation of
'bibliothèques universitaires' and 'bibliothèques de
lecture publique'". She says that Brest, Strasbourg, and
Clermont-Ferrand were offered as examples of different
approaches.
Le Saux credits Claudine Lieber (Inspection générale
des bibliothèques) for a typology of 3 results: 1) mere
nearby-neighbors ("voisins de quartier") who complement
but don't really combine, then, 2) next-door neighbors
("voisins de palier") who cooperate on mutual projects &
economies, and finally, 3) true combinations ("fusion")
-- they have all 3 in France -- perhaps we have all 3 in
the US -- and perhaps we all need all 3, plus other
approaches as well, for our upcoming digital libraries?
-- and, for San José and the US experience --
* John N. Berry III, "The San Jose model: Gale/Library Journal
Library of the Year 2004: San Jose Public Library and San Jose
State University Library" in _Library Journal_ (New York: Bowker,
June 15 2004) v129 i11 p34(4) ISSN 0363-0277 (Library Of The Year
2004)(Cover Story).
http://www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=articleArchive&articleid=CA423793
The writer here observes,
"A marriage of convenience?
"Both [city librarian] Light and [university librarian]
Breivik agree it is not a merger. 'In merger,' says
Light, 'one side or both lose their personality, their
identity. In a marriage, they remain two different
entities, and each brings different strengths and talents.'
"As Breivik points out, these two libraries, like so many
publicly supported institutions in troubled California,
have faced steady erosion of support, almost since the
passage of Proposition 13, the infamous antitax measure
of 1978. Both university and city needed larger, more
technologically up-to-date libraries. Neither one had a
ghost of a chance of getting a building anytime soon..."
Note: two observations of my own --
a) perhaps San José's library is an example, then, of Claudine
Lieber's #2, in her 3-part typology (Le Saux in BBF, above),
"next-door neighbors ('voisins de palier') who cooperate
on mutual projects & economies"
-- not simply #1, in other words -- they _used_ to be that --
"mere nearby-neighbors ('voisins de quartier') who
complement but don't really combine"
-- but not yet #3, as perhaps the Clermont-Ferrand library is,
"true combinations ('fusion')"
and,
b) it's about the money... And very often that is it, isn't it,
the money... Ironic, that in a fabulously-wealthy place which
invented the information revolution, like California, entire
library systems are closing (the city of Salinas, this summer),
and others are "combining", perhaps primarily to save on money...
But there are other reasons, too, and so money -- even if it is
significant, as it always is -- at least is not the only one.
Saskia Sassen and others are pointing out now that our
information revolution is producing Global Cities, which no
longer decentralize but in some ways do the opposite. (See her
précis, in the latest issue of the _Michigan Journal of
International Law_, of her forthcoming book, _Denationalization:
Economy and Polity in a Global Digital Age_, Princeton 2005).
And in these emerging Global Cities we need physical public
institutions, to facilitate the "face-to-face" communication at
last made possible by digital information's New Productivity...
So maybe _that_ is what a central city "library" is going to
be... perhaps what the new, combined, library at San José will
be, and / or what the older one at Clermont-Ferrand will be....
--oOo--
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