   
Public Libraries Section
Country Report: France 2003-2004
Florence Poncé1- New libraries: From the 1970ies, public libraries are growing in number in France and the sq meters available by inhabitants is regularly increasing. In 2002, 38 libraries opened, representing more than 60 000 sq m. A joined seminar organized by the IFLA Building Standing Committee and the Public libraries SC with the support of the Goethe-Institute, before the IFLA conference in Berlin, gathered more than 70 librarians from 19 countries to discover some of those new buildings. Maybe the Troyes library (Médiathèque de l’agglomération troyenne) made the strongest feeling to the visitors, as the modern architecture includes old wooden furniture in a scenographic way, but the Reims libraries are quite impressive also with the reflection of the famous royal cathedral on the glass walls on the three levels of services, including live long learning (Médiathèque Cathédrale). The group appreciated also the branch library Croix Rouge, and the armchairs for listening the audio CD!
Some of the participants testing the armchairs in Reims branch library. This kind of study tour could have been organized as well in the south of the country, in the recently built libraries of Montpellier, Nîmes, Cavaillon, Mandelieu, Nice, and soon Marseille and Antibes. The Nice public library (Bibliothèque municipale à vocation régionale de Nice), for example, has been designed by the artist Louis Nucéra: the building looking like a human head overlooks the old city, and a sophisticate lighting makes it even more obvious in the landscape at night. This tower hosts the staff offices, as the library is located on the ground floor. All services are free of charge, including Internet or cultural events.
2- New legislation: As every European countries, France had to adapt its legislation to the European directive on Lending Rights (1992). It had taken quite a long time and long discussions between authors, editors, booksellers, librarians, city councils and state administration, to achieve a new agreement (18/06/2003). Book market in France is governed by a fixed public price since 1981 (if you look at a French book, you can notice that the public price is printed on the outside back cover), but libraries had special commercial conditions up to 12-25% discount. The Public Lending Right Act of 10/06/2003 brings major changes in the book market, as the discount on public price will be limited to 9% as a maximum and 6% of the money collected by the book seller will be given back for Public Lending Right. A second source for PLR will be a global state payment of 1,5 Euro by library users, based on national statistics. This fund will go to authors (authors and translators) and editors, as in many agreement in European Union countries. Bilateral agreements can allow foreign authors to receive funding from this PLR. Another part of this money will go to a pension aid fund for authors. It seems that this point is quite original in the EU Public Lending Right panorama. From the librarian point of view, it is obvious that library budgets will be directly concerned by this new legislation, mainly if the resources – mainly from the city budget – are not increased in that proportion. A few measures are defined to help the libraries in the next two years to go beyond this change. Will the library budgets follow this evolution, to ensure the users the same number and quality of books? It is to early for a global appraisal. In the city where I work (Le Havre – Normandy), the library had a 28 % discount on all books till 2003, and will have only 9% in 2004, but the city council put up the book budget by 26 %. What are the positive points of this matters? First, the users are not paying directly the PLR: it was a very important demand while discussing the new agreement. Secondly, it is hoped that the new conditions will help local libraries getting the library market, as wholesales were big concurrence in the past conditions (a local bookseller can not afford a 30% discount on all books, as wholesales did). More information (in English): Comments from the French Library Association: http://www.abf.asso.fr/IMG/doc/Recommandations.doc 3- National programme for closeness libraries Every new building or renovation is supported by the Ministry of culture for around 30 % of the total investment cost in France, but some programmes are developed with specific focus. For example, from 1992 to nowadays, the Ministry of culture encouraged the creation of big libraries (that is to say, in the French context, from 5 000 to 25 000 sq metres) as regional libraries. Nine are opened already, and 3 more will open in the next years (Marseille, Toulouse and Rennes), representing 150 000 sq meters. The new state programme is, as the opposite, for rather small libraries (500-1200 sq meters) in poor urban areas or in rural areas, where the population has less resources and a rather bad quality of access to services, as many services are located in the city centers. This programme is called «hives», as closeness library will be a meeting place with high activity rate. 58 libraries are already planned in this context, and 40 millions Euros of state funding, about 40% of the total investment. More informationon municipal libraries of regional vocation: - on closeness libraries:
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