The Formative Policies of the Institut Mémoires de l'édition contemporaine Collections

The author examines the conditions that have allowed imec to build up one of the most important collections of private archives of the twentieth-century since its creation in 1988, and the opening up of this research. He shows how it was conceived from the beginning as an institution for research which subordinated the accumulation publishers' and writers' archives to its project of developing knowledge of the world of publishing and the place of writing in the contemporary epoque. He underlines the specifically cultivated relations which it has succeeded in creating, on a foundation of partnership and contracts of deposit, between proprietors and assignees of archives, and the world of research, and makes the point that the organization of the collections and their consultation are tied to the expectations and entreaties of modern research.
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