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
 

Let's say you'll be in France -- in fabulous, medieval, "Route St. Jacques" Conques -- where is the nearest library?

One perennial problem of traveling in France is that so much of historical and other interest happened in its villages.

So if you go to Conques, for example -- 302 habitants, Rouergue / Aveyron -- you can discover things historical, archeological, architectural, lapidary, religious, philosophical... Even to understand modern issues of immigration and emigration -- and the very great and very modern difficulties of "guests and aliens", as Saskia Sassen puts it -- you have to appreciate Conques.

But if you -- or, at least as important, if the significant other(s) with whom you are traveling -- are in need of written resources, while you are on your trip, for reference or diversion or entertainment or sheer distraction or whatever, the problem always is that you can't find these in the village...

Internet access is widespread in France, and the Nets are easily reached from a Conques café. That is not always adequate either, though. In spite of their excellent website,

http://www.conques.com/
http://www.conques.com/index1.htm (English)

so much about Conques is not online, yet. And the process of "entertaining the troops" always can use some extra ammo -- on a family outing, or even a visite du couple -- if those with whom you travel do not happen to share your intense personal fascination for famous medieval gold reliquaries...

So, where is the nearest library? Well, for Conques, try Rodez: 25 miles...

• Rodez, Bibliothèque départementale de prêt de l'Aveyron
  postal: rue de Paraire, 12000 Rodez
  t. 65.73.72.50; fx. 65.73.72.51, 65.73.35.72
  
  21,000 volumes. "The library was created by decree on March 24, 1964; a Bibliobus began circulating in the region in April, 1965. Specialties: Aveyron, Agriculture."

• Rodez, Bibliothèque de la Société des lettres, sciences, et arts de l'Aveyron
  postal: 2 rue de Laumière, BP 125, 12000 Rodez cedex
  t. & fx. 65.42.75.93
  
  40,000 volumes including 18,000 fonds rouergat; 30,000 pamphlets; 550 periodicals titles; 4,000 documents patrimoniaux; 350 manuscripts; 12,000 plans or prints; 130,000 photographs.

• Aveyron, Archives départementales, Centre de documentation
  postal: 25 avenue Victor Hugo, 12000 Rodez
  t. 65.73.80.70, fx. 65.73.80.71

  -- and,

• Rodez, Médiathèque
  postal: 7 rue Camille Douls, BP 310, 12003 Rodez cedex
  t. 65.77.89.10, fx. 65.77.89.09
  email: medrod@mairie-rodez.fr
  
  200,000 volumes including 40,000 fonds ancien and 6,000 fonds local; 800 periodicals titles; 45,000 sound recordings; 1,000 video cassettes. "Bibliothèque encyclopédique. Spécialités principales. Fonds local : Aveyron (Rouergue). Théologie patristique, controverses religieuses (XVIIe-XVIIIe s.)." 146 incunables, 137 manuscripts...

  "The library was founded in 1795, with collections from the convents of the city. Throughout the 19th century, its collections were increased by deposits and gifts from the French State, and by generous individual legacies which continued into the 20th century. In 1906, the collections of the Seminary, and then in 1951 part of those of the Bishopric, were deposited in the library. A few years later the library was further enriched by the deposit of a part of the personal collection of Henri Bousquet, the president of the Société des Lettres, Sciences et Arts de l'Aveyron.

  Special collections:

  • Fonds Alix de Seguret-Saincric -- "4,000 volumes, 1801-1900: Primarily works of classical authors of the Romantic Era, in editions sometimes illustrated with the engravings of Tony et Alfred Johannot. Also contains a collection of Charivari, and the 1834 edition of the complete works of Buffon."

  • Fonds Aveyron -- "6,000 volumes: Regional collections on the Aveyron and the Rouergue."

  • Fonds Henri Bousquet -- "15,000 volumes, 1801-1930: Collection on deposit at the Médiathèque de Rodez. Property of the Société des Lettres, Sciences et Arts de l'Aveyron, which also holds part of the Bousquet Collection on its own premises (the total collection includes about 50,000 works). The collection contains primarily works of the 19th and early 20th centuries, although there are some documents dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries as well." Subjects covered include,

    • Arts (Beaux-arts et Arts décoratifs)
    • Géographie et histoire
    • Philosophie
    • Parapsychologie et occultisme
    • Psychologie
    • Religion
    • Littérature
    • Economie domestique et vie familiale
    • Bibliothéconomie et sciences de l'information

  • Fonds Joseph Fabre -- "2,400 volumes, 1801-1900: A collection of philosophical, political, and literary works, one part of which includes dedications from Clemenceau, Deroulède and Schoelcher."

  • Fonds Théologie -- "13,000 volumes, 1501-1900: The collection assembled for the instruction of students at the Rodez Seminary -- so it is concerned primarily with religion, although it also includes 19th century scientific and historical and legal texts."

So, Rodez... 23,707 inhabitants, "anciennement Segodunum, capitale des Rutènes"... and the very rich wonders of a small-town "public libary", in France... and it's near Conques...

FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal                   ISSN 1071 - 5916

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