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• History of the Bpi
  • Construction of the Bpi
  • First Life of the Bpi
    • The film "Les Habitués"
  • A 2-year Renovation
  • 2000 and After

First Life of the Bpi

The 1977-1997 period saw major developments in the collections and services of the Library:  technological advances created new formats, new tools and new means of communication with the public.

The Collections

Green stacks in the Bpi

Printed Materials

In addition to the works of reference acquired before the Library opened, the collection of printed materials was regularly renewed following closely the current publishing trends. The resources on offer were constantly changing through acquisitions and removals, in order to fulfil the Library's characteristics (entire stock freely accessible in a limited space) and missions (encyclopaedic and up-to-date). 

Films

Films – mainly documentary films on current issues – were available in the form of videos in the different areas of the Library according to their subject. They could be watched by 4-8 persons around a work-station, after reservation. But this arrangement was insufficient, so projections were organised for larger groups in order to meet the demand. From 1986, films could be watched by a single person on fifty video-recorders in different areas of the Library.

Images

The images selected and prepared by the Image Department, available at first in the form of baskets of slides in open access, were very soon replaced by fixed weekly programmes, because of their fragility. From 1985, the collections were transcribed onto video disks, and then digitalised from 1991 in order to allow the on-line transmission of images.

Music and sound

Music and sound documents, available in the Current Affairs room and the children's library, were very popular from the opening of the Bpi. In 1982, a specific consultation area was organised in order to create a clearly identifiable place that was separate from the reading areas, and right next to where musical works, magazines and scores were stored.

Foreign Languages

From the beginning, the Foreign Languages section provided an original place to study or refine one's knowledge of around thirty foreign languages. It included a language laboratory with forty places where audio and video tools could be used. It was so successful that a second laboratory of twenty places was opened in 1980 in order to meet the demand. In 1988, the section was equipped with six work-stations which could be used to watch foreign television channels.

Software Resources

The Software section, that offered open access to tutorials in office skills and educational computer software, was created in 1988 to complete the range of training possibilities provided by the Library.

On-line Resources

The first data-banks appeared in the Library in 1979, with an experiment in the use of the BIPA ("Banque d’Informations Politiques et Administratives"), created by the Documentation Française. Then, in 1981, a service offering an "on-line consultation of data-banks" was opened to the public.

In 1984, the Information counters were equipped with Minitel terminals, to provide users with information and to demonstrate the technology. In 1986 four Minitel stations were installed for the public to use. In the 1990s documents published on CD-ROMs made their appearance, then data-banks that could be consulted through a network. In 1995, the first work-stations were installed providing the public with open access free of charge to Internet. 

The services

On-line Services and Bpi-doc

From its opening, the Bpi has provided an information service by telephone and has prepared press folders on current events in order to respond to frequently asked questions. In 1986, using Minitel, a communication tool called "Public-Info" was added to this service.

During the 1990s, a system was created enabling the press folders to be provided electronically and the Bpi-doc data-bank was born, which could be consulted directly by the public via a specific work-station in 1996. The following year, a new on-line information service was inaugurated, that combined the use of surface mail, telephone, Minitel and Internet.

Disabled Users

The opening of the Borgès Room in 1984 marked the beginning of specific Bpi services aimed at persons with a vusual impairment: at first the room offered two tools, a Perkins machine to write in Braille and a Reinicker video recorder that increased the size of characters. Then a Kurzweil machine that could read aloud a text printed by optical character recognition completed the equipment. In 1996, the national Reading Disability Mission was attached to the Bpi.

Computerised catalogue on CD-ROM

Catalogues

Wishing to make available to its users a computerised catalogue of its collections, in 1986 the Bpi initiated the SCARABE project ("Système de Catalogage et de Recherche Automatisé à l’usage des Bibliothèques Encyclopédiques"), an automated cataloging and searching system for the use of encyclopaedic libraries. The system made it possible for librarians to work on their screens in real time but did not yet give the possibility to consult the catalogue on-line.

The arrival of CD-ROMs made new experiments possible: in 1987, the Bpi produced the first French CD-ROM, called Lise, which contained the Library's catalogue. The following year, the installation of an OPAC (On-line Public Access Catalogue) module gave users the possibility to conduct their searches of the catalogue on 60 terminals in different parts of the Library. Finally, in 1995, the Bpi provided on-line access to its catalogue via the Minitel and the first version of its website.