December 15, 2000 issue. This file presents an archive copy of the issue of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which was distributed via email on December 15, 2000.
Versions of the following have appeared online regularly, since 1992, as a feature of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which is distributed for free via email every month except August. Ejournal subscriptions may be obtained via email request to: kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Here this file is one of a number made available -- hopefully
attractively, all in one place, and relevant to libraries and online
digital information work in France and Europe -- as part of FYI France
(sm)(tm), an online service to which anyone can subscribe for 12
months by postal mailing a check for US $45, payable to Jack Kessler, to
PO Box 460668, San Francisco, California, USA 94146 (site licenses also
are available): please write your email address on the front of your
check. Please email suggestions for improvements to me at kessler@well.sf.ca.us
--oOo--
As long as it's Christmas, there are some very good new books available -- with increasing purchase & delivery ease for overseas francophiles & francophobes thanks to ecommerce -- on libraries, librarians, librarianship, and things both Internet and bookish in France.
Periodically I offer lists of these here. This month I thought I would suggest 3 principal online "ongoing resource" sites, with examples: so if you are interested in any of the just - mentioned subjects, the following might be useful to "bookmark" and check into occasionally -- for "information on French information" --
1) Electre. At the following address --
a subscription form for Livres Hebdo, one of the leading librarianship and publishing periodicals in France, access to various databases and services, and listings of "Cercle de la Librairie" publications -- grouped under "Métiers du livre", "Collection bibliothèques", "Beaux livres", "Bibliophilie" and "Histoire du livre" -- and currently offering, for example --
Law -- What non - French lawyer / law library / publisher -- and now also any Web developer or ecommerce vendor, in these days of Yahoo! "Nazi memorabilia" lawsuits and censorship (other countries may follow the French soon), plus Napster / Bertelsmann -- can go on without some sort of one - stop - shopping resource for the intricacies of French intellectual property law? In France they figure that Victor Hugo -- yes, he's been dead for a long time -- still retains a "droit moral" copyright in Notre Dame de Paris... --
"Member of the Paris bar. Specialist in intellectual property. 50 articles are assembled in this work, offering practical examples and numerous commentaries providing simple and immediate solutions to everyday problems. General advice, and numerous drafting clause examples and synoptic tables help publishers understand the difficulties which they confront in this area. Notably: the duration of copyright, forgery, 'information' law (defamation, invasion of privacy...), contracts (royalties...), Internet, trademark." [tr. JK]
"New version of the Publisher's Guide to Copyright, entirely updated and revised on numerous points: multimedia, databases, the law regarding imaging, models ['mannequins' tr.?], labor contracts, audiovisual adaptations... supplemented with 10 model contracts available on PC/Mac diskettes." [tr. JK]
Publishing -- Very different situation / industry in France from anything followed in the UK or US or, really, anywhere else -- legacy of the "loi Lang" and an ancient and very structured tradition, all now very much under fire due to both online information / Internet and globalization -- very much worth looking at for anyone interested in a case study of a national industrial sector "swimming against the stream" --
"This work demonstrates the variety of publishing production and explains the complementarity of skills which plays an important part in the book industry. It will interest all those who wish to understand the roles of the different actors in the publishing world." [tr. JK]
"From 'l'informatique éditoriale' to 'la fabrication', from 'la diffusion' to 'la distribution', from 'droit des auteurs' to 'licences', or 'librairies' to 'bibliothèques', this dictionary assembles 20,000 terms regarding the world of books and new media. It offers alternative translations specifying the particular contexts of their use." [tr. JK] -- hard to find good technical dictionaries for fast - changing fields...
"All aspects of the publishing profession: concept, production, marketing. This is an entire re - thinking of the accelerating transformation of French and international publishing: increasing market concentration, new publishing orientations, modifications in the intellectual property legal codes, positive aspects and necessary dangers presented by the information revolution and the world of multimedia... Numerous practical examples and model contracts, for offers, preliminary negotiations, etc. This treatise covers all of the actors in the world of publishing." [tr. JK]
"'Co - editions' and 'co - productions', new practices and strategies. The workings of strategy transplanted to an international context." [tr. JK] -- of interest to any non - US / non - UK publisher, I would think... how to compete with the behemoths in "globalization"...
Libraries --
"The maintenance of collections, dealing with new types of user, playing a cultural role... this work offers an account of the most recent developments. It also is a practical guide which clearly explains how to mount cooperative projects and how to stage cultural events. It will interest all librarians searching for new approaches to their work." [tr. JK]
"Libraries increasingly develop services destined for very diverse publics: education, demonstrations, online catalogs, interactive workstations, Internet access... How to welcome, educate, inform the public in this situation? A panorama of innovations and procedures enabling the development of new services." [tr. JK]
"How to design and achieve computerization 'according to the rules of the game'. Needs analysis, methodology, development... Epublishing, network development, Internet use..." [tr. JK]
History --
-- plus puffery as to same -- this in French because of the difficulty of translating superlatives -- sometimes fun to read, altho not if you have to do it all day long --
"Ce monumental ouvrage explique les mutations d'une profession." Laurent Lemire - LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR
"L'instrument de référence par excellence." Pierre Assouline - LIRE
"On est heureux d'y retrouver tant de couvertures qui ont bercé notre jeunesse, tant de photos que l'on ne connaissait pas, tant de visages que l'on reconnaît." Pierre Nora - LE MONDE
"Ce livre est non seulement un outil de travail indispensable à tous les bibliothécaires et tous les érudits, mais aussi un régal." Olivier Le Naire - L'EXPRESS
"Faites-vous offrir ou offrez-vous ce somptueux, précis et très complet objet." Bernard Frank - LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR
"Par la qualité, la complétude et l'intelligence de ses études, ce travail apporte une contribution de taille à la connaissance de l'histoire éditoriale contemporaine". Pascale Haubruge - LE SOIR DE BRUXELLES
Other interesting stuff -- Electre calls these "Beaux Livres" --
"How French youngsters learned to read during the last century. Taken from the collection of 700 "ABC books" held at the Bibliothèque Nationale." [tr. JK]
"A defense and illustration of the written word through the work of the great figures of typography: from Gutenberg to Tschichold." [tr. JK]
"The best international specialists analyse the traditions and creativity of the scribes and copyists." [tr. JK]
2) A second ongoing resource site: the DLL's "bibliographie sélective"
At the following address the DLL / Direction du Livre et de la Lecture offers and apparently efficiently maintains a so - far - very - up - to - date bibliography, on the various subject areas within their administrative purview -- which includes nearly anything involving books / libraries / publishing in France --
http://www.culture.fr/culture/guides/dll/livre.htm
Le Livre et la lecture en France
Bibliographie sélective, mars 2000
3) And a 3rd selection of ongoing resources: ecommerce -- you now can get all of these books (or nearly all) simply by clicking in... from Mozambique...
Amazon.fr -- offering perhaps the easiest "point and click" ecommerce access to all of this -- you can sort an amazon.fr retrieval very conveniently "par disponibilité", "par meilleures ventes", "le moins cher d'abord", "le plus cher d'abord", "par date de parution", "de A à Z", and "de Z à A" -- very valuable access, particularly if you are in a hurry --
"Résultats de Livres: 320 résultats au total pour 'bibliotheques'"
-- among which, currently --
For "Digital Library" fans -- a "non - US" (think different!) take on same --
And for the best one - stop - shop general intro. on French libraries and librarianship, in a new edition --
And Umberto Eco on libraries -- written with tongue planted firmly in cheek -- hilarious must reading for any librarian, library - user, or lover of either and / or of Eco and / or of his prose -- also for anyone either enamored of or despising the new Trés Grande Bibliothèque / Bibliothèque François Mitterrand at Tolbiac --
And "The Old Stuff" -- some new ways to get at it --
And cataloging -- Any of you catalogers out there stuck in some USMARC / whateverMARC bind? Any of you non - catalogers wondering what the catalogers are talking about? --
And Vietnam -- If it's not yet a "burning topic" for revisionist research at your institution, then it should be -- the US President was there last month, and they're getting high speed Internet access in Hanoi soon -- and, again, at least for the "non - US" view see France... --
And also, for comparison - shopping at least, and to be fair, there is La FNAC -- run an "amazon.fr" list by La FNAC here and see -- this being France there "should" be no price differences, but somehow there always are (hint: be sure to figure your prices CIF / "costinsurancefreight" included / "landed" i.e. on your desk, after "freight" and everything else...) --
"Voici les 137 livres correspondant à votre recherche
<
-- so, a lot smaller retrieval than amazon.fr's "320"... no I do not know what indexes either vendor is including on a search... and I would think that most publishers by now would list with both amazon.fr and La FNAC, but this may not be so, yet...
La FNAC retrieval sorting is available by "Date", "Titre", something unexplained called "Rang", and "Rang puis Titre" (be sure to click the little "OK" button to the right of the "Afficher par" box if you want to use these sorting indexes).
I see that the current FNAC price for Denis Pallier's book is FF 39.90, beating amazon.fr by .05, but then La FNAC wants FF. 342.75 for the Dupoirier "digital libraries" book, making them higher than amazon.fr, on this one, by .08... be sure to figure in your freight, as that will make the biggest price difference... the "loi Lang" marches on, making me happy once again that I myself am not a French bookseller...
So -- plenty to buy and read and / or put on the shelf for a rainy / snowy day for later reading --
Bonne lecture(s), and Merry Christmas.
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
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--hjlm--
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