Public Markets: the Relations Between Bookshops and Libraries

The development of the transfer of the public market for document acquisition between librarians and booksellers is revealing of the complex relations that are maintained by the two professions. Across the example of a regional lending library in Aquitaine and the responses brought to an inquiry carried out by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles in ten metropolitan regions, we can see that if librarians and booksellers are in agreement about favouring in the choice of a distributor the notion of "best-said", the ignorance of the circulation of the book economy prevents qualitative criteria being developed effectively in the compilation of markets. An effort at increasing the sensitivity of professionals and at mobilizing territorial bodies must then be put to work to guarantee a better balance in the distribution of books and of culture.
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