Museum Libraries in France: Their Wealth and Their Influence

Extract

The following words preface Francoise Cachin’s introduction to Marie-Thérèse Cavignac’s Les bibliothèques des musées en Aquitaine:

Richness and diversity! Reading this volume demonstrates how wide and varied is the subject matter of the museum libraries in the Aquitaine region, whether it be the library in the Bonnat Museum in Bayonne or in the national museum at the Château de Pau, those in museums specialising in the history of Aquitaine, the Pays Basque or the Périgord, or those in museums dealing with prehistory or contemporary art or seaplanes, the customs service or folk art.

This description is just as valid for the rest of France. Considerable effort has been put into the modernisation of French museums during the last twenty years or so and their libraries have benefited from this renewal as well. I would like in this paper to describe some of the strengths of libraries and documentation centres in museums of art, and to try and define their role within their institutions and within the network of French art libraries.