The retroconversion of the municipal libraries' catalogues : chronicle of a modernization and outline of an assessment

The retroconversion programme of municipal libraries'catalogues, a part of the project of the prospective Bibliothèque nationale de France, is now entering its last phase. The catalogues of heritage and local collections belonging to twenty-six libraries are converted. The last campaign to capture the catalogues of thirty more libraries started in February 1996. It is too early to take stock of the process. Nevertheless, we can draw some observations, tendencies and prospects as regards the recipient ones : the retroconversion captures bore out the variety, abundance and unicity of their heritage collections. Modernizing the catalogues of these stocks leads professionals to reach a radically different approach of their access. It gives these collections and therefore the libraries holding them a new and worldwide radiance.
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