Gallica Digital Library Charter

A library of primary literature

Gallica is a means of accessing the literary and graphic dimensions of cultural heritage.

It offers the public thematic bodies of knowledge centered on one or more library collections. Those collections span several BnF departments, each presenting a different type of document access. Users must be able to work on hundreds of documents within a given subject area, therefore Gallica wil provide groups of documents on a given author, current of thought or subject.

Its aim, once again, is not to place entire library collections online. Gallica does not attempt to present an exhaustive range of library materials.

Without taking for granted what has been Gallica's main strength-- its collections of authors' works--this digital library emphasizes another dimension of its collections. Every large research library has the responsibility to develop innovative new ways on of spreading knowledge, especially with regard to commercial publishing. Gallica's new focus is meeting this challenge.

Gallica reflects BnF's printed collections, which have entered the library system in a number of ways. These resources are rich, yet do not consist of a "classic" body of authors constructed from a purely academic perspective, as one would find in certain universities and research units. Gallica must offer bodies of research documents gathered from library materials that characterize the BnF collections, materials that are still underused. A certain portion of the 19th-century press represents one of the best examples. In this case, accessibility takes precedence over the rare nature of the works. Hence, more emphasis must be placed on "collections of sources" (as historians would see it) that are hard to access today, yet relevant to a wider public.

The body of authors included in the new Gallica system makes up the collections of sources. Each collection now has a manageable size and provides ample research material. Today, Baudelaire is easier to find than Sully-Prudhomme. One of Gallica's goals, therefore, is to offer literary periods not only of "major authors," but also lesser-known authors. Gallica will accomplish this like no other online tool, opening new avenues of research.

To meet this goal, Gallica will use primary source material whose symbolic importance is linked to BnF. For example, although parts of the photographic collections of Eugène Atget, Charles Nègre, and Charles Marville, as well as the engravings of Jacques Callot and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, have been republished in book form, BnF has archived the most important of those collections. It will be beneficial to treat image collections and sound recordings in the same way as philosophers and writers, by including learning tools that help increase understanding of a period or movement. Only an institution like BnF can follow this kind of approach. It will strengthen the concept of "bodies of knowledge" and bring consistency to BnF's offerings, which mostly interest those who search for materials from an historical perspective.

The process of selecting bodies of knowledge means that the presentation and content of Gallica will change during the year 2005. When you search Gallica in the future, you will have a number of access levels: topic, title, author, and, possibly, library collection. You will also be able to combine search criteria. As with Internet search engines, Gallica will allow you to search for more than just title and author.

A library of research tools

Research tools include classic dictionaries, directories, bibliographies, and similar materials.

There is a strong demand for the digitization of research tools, such as dictionaries and special catalogs, especially materials that are out-of-print. The digitization of dictionaries within Gallica is limited to the image format as it currently exists. A simple technical solution using the image format, however, can now meet a large part of the demand: "Tables of Contents" allow readers to navigate among the current headings on each page (for example, ARAN – ARAP- ARAS).

This is an appropriate solution to consider in 2004 from a technical point of view. It can then be expanded to apply to specific Gallica objectives:

• creating a list of the main existing titles to include in Gallica,
• creating a supplementary list of new titles to include, based on the criteria explained above, and
• developing special work schedules within the production chain.

The priority is to offer the main French bibliographic tools out-of-print since the 16th century, from La Croix du Maine to Lorenz, and including the complete digitization of the Bibliographie de la France since 1811. With this program, BnF will meet the needs of the library network as well as researchers.

Languages and Geographical Reach: mainly collections from France in the French language

Gallica focuses primarily on works about France, in the French language, and published in France.

This focus distinguishes BnF from other similar libraries in other countries. BnF collections, nonetheless, have included foreign documents for centuries. This will be taken into account to avoid creating research boundaries that are too rigid.

Historic collections of manuscripts, rich in diverse languages, must be preserved despite Gallica's new focus on French language collections. The French language dominates the enhancements to Gallica. However, Gallica will regularly include foreign-language materials contained in BnF collections, especially when they complete or significantly add to the body of knowledge, or their absence degrades overall consistency. We will select first editions or landmark translations that are, in general, in the public domain. The proportion of these works will be decided on a program-to-program basis.

The same reasoning applies to the geographical reach of Gallica and its openness to Europe and the rest of the world, depending on the nature of the collections.

Time period covered: a rebalancing of BnF collections, emphasizing the early modern period

Technical and legal constraints make it necessary for Gallica to emphasize the French 19th-century portion of the collections in two ways:

• as a period of rapid growth in French intellectual output, and
• as a golden age for the critical analysis of other centuries, especially the Middle Ages.

The 19th century witnessed the rapid development of large scholarly collections that published and distributed new archival sources and the first complete collections of authors (in literature, philosophy, and other fields). Gallica naturally reflects this vital scholarly movement in France, especially in the field of history. To date, history collections have not been replaced, except for the republication of classic works.

The 19th century was also a great period for the organized distribution of scientific knowledge and political thought, not only through academic journals, but also through analytical surveys and dictionaries: this dimension will appear more prominently in the new Gallica. This is also true for geographical movement and the empowerment of the social sciences, both fundamental in increasing the influence of French schools of thought.

The BnF collections have their origins in much earlier times. Collections of materials from the early modern period, especially from the 16th to 18th centuries, need to be given the emphasis they deserve.

Following detailed analysis of digitized collections by subject area, the following needs to be affirmed:

• The vast majority of Gallica is in the public domain, in accordance with its role as a repository of French cultural heritage.
• A rebalancing of collections with an emphasis on the early modern period (16th to 18th centuries) is necessary.
  Based on the principle explained above, this does not involve seeking an ideal coverage of the landmarks of intellectual thought and art. Rather, this rebalancing means filling scholarly gaps and furthering the digitization of research sources, such as the BnF collection of religious criticism published during the Ancien Régime (France before French Revolution of 1789). Special attention will be paid to the 17th century collections. Materials from the 16th century will also be supplemented by adding to Gallica incunabula (early printed books) analyzed in a database of iconographic materials developed by the BnF Rare Book Reserve (Réserve des Livres Rares).
• The good coverage of the French Revolution in books puts into perspective the gaps discovered in the period from the end of the 18th century to the turn of the 19th century. The 19th century, especially its second half, requires additional resources. This is particularly true for history and political science because certain collections and sections are currently missing from Gallica (Commune and others).

The 20th century will be approached mainly through academic journals, especially those focusing on philosophy, literature, and art. Finally, Gallica will build collections on World War I, in which interest has recently been revived.

Subject areas

Imbalances between subject areas are apparent. The aim is not to correct imbalances systematically, but to do so in a way that reflects both the importance of the collections (including those of special collections departments and research interests.

see also

Access the tables Current Status and Pl Enhancements by Subject Area by clicking on the subjects

Currently, Gallica covers three subject areas particularly well:

• History,
• Literature, and
• Science.

History and literature are major themes in the BnF collections, while the sciences are in high demand from the research community.

These subjects do not have to be re-examined, since they have reached the critical level at which digital collections become useful for research. Although it may be necessary to control the growth of these three subject areas, they must continue to be developed.

By contrast, certain smaller collections, such as linguistics, are already well balanced.

In the near future, Gallica will further develop under-represented subject areas, including philosophy, religion, and political science.

The arts will also be expanded based on joint projects with the Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art (INHA) and the wealth of materials held in the main BnF departments of this general subject area: Music; Engravings and Photography; and Performing Arts.

Identifying earlier projects

The French Ministry of Culture (Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication) maintains a database of ongoing digitization projects. At this time, the resources listed are quite varied.

The ministry's Department of Literature and the Promotion of Reading (Direction du Livre et de la Lecture) is seeking to increase the visibility of projects focusing on France's literary heritage. In the process, it would like to develop closer ties to projects that could involve the Subdepartment of Libraries of the French National Ministry of Education (Sous-Direction des Bibliothèques of the Ministère de l’Education Nationale). BnF's expertise in France's literary heritage puts it in a unique position to participate in this particular cataloging project.

Two avenues of cooperation

Today, the prospects for joint digitization projects lead us in two directions:

• the online consolidation of related and complementary collections:
  • Philidor Collection of baroque music, divided between Paris and Versailles,
  • Dunhuang manuscripts, in cooperation with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and
  • La France en Amérique/France in America project studying the influence of France on North American culture, in close partnership with the Library of Congress (USA).
  These projects involve coordinating different Internet portals between the participants. Other kinds of joint digitization projects are taking shape with a number of scientific libraries holding national heritage trust collections. The individual responsibilities and fields covered have been divided between the institutions and BnF. New types of Web site navigation have simplified this division.
• document sharing between Gallica and teams of specialists to allow more comprehensive access to documents (creation or reuse of tables of contents, special directories, etc.).
  BnF's partnership with the Cellule Mathdoc documentation system, for mathematics journals, well illustrates this kind of complementary document access. Beginning with the Journal de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées, Cellule Mathdoc (a joint research unit of the Université Joseph Fourier-Grenoble, CNRS) is contributing to indexing of journal literature in Gallica. This is available on the Mathdoc Web site, which has a direct link to Gallica documents. Sharing roles in this way is certainly the most promising path for Gallica, which creates high expectations among its users because of its past successes and the continuity guaranteed by a national institution.

Special treatment must be reserved for regional history, which remains important from the point-of-view of regional cooperation and corresponds to the first "avenue" discussed above, by which Gallica will bring together related collections.

The success of academic journal programs covering 19th-century learned societies creates new possibilities for enhancing the value of French national heritage trust collections distributed between BnF and municipal libraries (as well as archives).

We emphasize the:

• recent digitization project of the Bibliothèque Municipale de Troyes for chapbook collections, distributed among numerous libraries, and the
• collection of rare materials on World War I, held by the Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC), the Bibliothèque Nationale Universitaire de Strasbourg (BNUS), and BnF.

Digitization of the French daily press of the 19th century

BnF has undertaken the digitization of 26 important titles of the French daily press of the 19th and turn of the 20th centuries, amounting to about 3 million pages, which constitutes the largest online collection of newspapers in the world. Gallica lacks a full spectrum of contemporary history in this area of sources on the written press from Emile de Girardin to Georges Clemenceau.

The following titles will be included: Le Temps, Le Figaro, L'Humanité, La Croix, Le Petit Parisien, La Presse, Le Matin, L'Action Française, Le Petit Journal, L’Aurore, La Justice, Le Constitutionnel, Le Gaulois, Le Siècle, Le National,Le Rappel, L'Intransigeant, L’Univers, Gil Blas, and La Lanterne.

This program will be carried out over a period of five to seven years.

These titles will be digitized strictly according to Gallica digitization policy. This involves processing, above all, issues of these titles now in the public domain. For copyrighted material, there must be case-by-case agreements with the press publishers holding the copyrights. These agreements are aimed at possibly cooperating with the publishers' own online programs, which, in general, cover recent years.

This flexible practice protects the interests of both parties:

• BnF, whose mission is to offer the public free access to the written cultural heritage of France, now in the public domain, in BnF's libraries as well as over the Internet, and
• press publishers that commercially offer contemporary copyrighted materials.

The following program has been planned:

• The first phase involves the digitization of the primary source material of BnF. This digitization will be carried out in image format, recreating for the reader the original appearance of the material for online access.
• The second phase concerns additional techniques for accessing volumes and navigating within documents.
  To date, Gallica offers access to the different issues of a journal volume through its bibliographic record. This record contains a chronological list of the individual documents available and presents tables of contents digitized in searchable text format (when they exist). This means of access to well organized titles, appearing quarterly or more frequently, cannot be used for newspapers that have digitized material covering more than 50 years.
  • It is, therefore, necessary to allow for chronological access to documents, such as the system used at the Austrian National Library's Austrian Newspapers Online (http://anno.onb.ac.at/): the website visitor selects a title, then navigates within a calendar to gain access to the desired issue in the desired year.
  • Access to subjects treated in the newspapers must now be addressed. New solutions must be identified to deal with the usual lack of tables of contents. Today, it is possible for website visitors to search all the text using a single keyword (article titles and content), thanks to OCR technology.