USEFUL LINKS IN FRANCE: LIBRAIRIES

Directory of university libraries

Annuaire des bibliothèques universitaires (ou services communs de documentation universitaire)

Directory of libraries worldwide

Bibliothèques dans le monde (Les)

BDIC - Library of Contemporary International Documentation

Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC)

The BDIC contains tens of thousands ofreferences on bilateral relations between countries (political,economic, and cultural). In addition to works of diplomatic focus published by the world's most powerful nations, there are numerous works edited by regional and international organizations. Holdings include over 2,000 periodicals published by some 500 international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental.

BNF - National Library of France

BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France)

This site provides : 

• Presentation of the BNF (history, missions, organization, activities),
• Presentation of the documents collection (constitution, organization location),
• Presentation of and directions to the following on-line catalogues:
• BN Opale Plus: catalogue of national heritage collections of printed books or periodicals, French and foreign, constituted via copyright law, donation, purchase, or exchange since the 16th century,
• BN Opale: books collected since 1970, periodicals since 1960; the base is integrated on a regular basis into BN-Opale Plus,
• Catalogue of accessible documents (books and periodicals),
• Catalogue of audio-visual documents (notice describing 800,000 documents such as long- playing records, compact disks, audio cassettes, videotapes and videodisks, multimedia and CD-Roms, digital images),
• BN-Opaline: catalogue of specialized collections such as maps, 20th centuries manuscripts, etchings and photographs (the computerization is incomplete for some collections),
• Catalogue of digital documents which can be consulted at the BNF
• Gallica: catalogue of digital documents available on line.
• Reader services,
• BNF publications,
• Formalities for reproducing and reserving documents,
• Pedagogical kits based on heritage collections,
• Copyright information,
• Professional information for librarians,
• links to other web-sites.

BIUM - Inter-University Medical Library

BIUM (Bibliothèque Inter-Universitaire de Médecine)

The BIUM server provides general information about the library system as well as a database for medical theses (since 1985), recent acquisitions , medical conferences and congresses from the last few years, a directory of medical libraries, and a screen display of extremely old medical works.

BPI - Public Information Library

BPI (Bibliothèque Publique d'Information)

The BPI catalogue is available on the Internet. One particularity of their system is the use of "cookies" which enable you to keep a record of questions asked. A "cookie jar" enables you to gather files on contemporary issues. The holdings may be searched by keywords or alphabetically by term. You can narrow the scope of the questions by specifying the type of collection, language, media, and date.

Collective catalogue of France

Catalogue collectif de France

The Collective catalogue encompasses:

• The consolidated catalogue of municipal library collections (2 million documents available nationwide),
• BN Opale Plus: catalogue of national heritage collections of printed books or periodical, French and foreign, constituted via copyright law, donations, purchase or exchange since the 16th century),
• The catalogue of universities libraries (books, dissertations, periodicals, electronic or audio-visual documents, and maps belonging to the 110 university libraries).

Simplified searches can be conducted (author, title or year) as well as more detailed searches (using and (et), or (ou) except (sauf) and by specifying the type of document. Reference and location information is provided for each document, but the search can be very slow.

Insideweb

This database contains references for some 20,000 periodicals to which the British Library currently subscribes as well as for 16,000 write-ups of conferences published yearly in a variety of fields: science, technology, medicine, social and human sciences, law... Access with an admission charge.

NLM - National Library of Medicine)

NLM (National Library of Medicine)

This site provides access to the NLM’s periodical catalogue (USA).

NLPH -National Library of Public Health

Directory of libraries worldwide

UNESCO Libraries Portal gives access to websites of library institutions around the world. It serves as an international gateway to information for librarians and library users and international co-operation in this area.

University Documentation System

Système universitaire de documentation

The catalogue enables you to conduct bibliographic searches throughout the French university library system for all types of documents and periodicals, and indicates in which of the system’s 2,900 establishments your document is located. The directory of resource centers provides useful information on the system’s libraries.

Thesa, directory listing theses in progress in France's "grandes écoles"

Thesa lists theses in progress for some twenty "grandes écoles". It provides information on the research topics and names of Ph.D candidates in engineering, finance, and management, and covers doctoral work from the planning stages to the defense. The references are kept online for a year after the awarding of the diploma and are then transferred to the Thesenet database. Master's degree theses are not included in the Thesa directory.