March 15, 1993 FYI France: Chamonix Library, and the Alps, online (WAIS?!) by: Jack Kessler kessler@well.sf.ca.us All it takes to put a library online over here is a modem. It's being done. A "latest" list of online French libraries is attached, and you'll see that there have been several recent additions. It's the ease of doing this here which is so amazing. The French government is continuing to invest heavily both in their national "Minitel" networked information system -- 7+ million terminals now, many millions more in Mac/pc "emulator" software packages, 17,000+ online services -- and in their libraries. There are rumors that much of this might end with the upcoming election of The Right, but there are other rumors that eventual privatization of, among others, France Telecom, might give it new energy and in fact expand it. 1) Chamonix Online The latest addition in online French libraries is the Bibliothe`que Municipale of Chamonix. If you can't get there yourself -- it's a beautiful little library, with one of the better-equipped children's rooms around, and an active and ever-changing program of lobby-exhibitions, all in one of the world's most spectacular valleys at the foot of the Aiguille Vert, the Aiguille du Midi, and Mont Blanc -- getting there virtually may be the next best thing. (Will they ever have a "virtual reality" experience of the Chamonix Valley? Hang-gliding down from the Aiguille du Midi, online.) To get to many of these newer French library services you just make a telephone call using a "V23" modem. No, that's not the standard used in the US or Canada, and I don't know how commonly-available "V23" modems are there: you can buy them for US $160 in nearly any computer store in Europe. Unfortunately these services canNOT be reached using the Minitel software diskettes distributed in the US by the Minitel Services Co. (telephones: 212-399-0080, 914-694-6266): you can reach most Minitel "kiosk" services -- "3614", "3615", even the French telephone books / annuaires e'le'ctroniques using "3614" then "AE" (French) or "ED" (English) -- but these newer library services bypass the "kiosk" system. So this is French "information overload" coming on: people here now are mounting online services and serving them out over normal telephone lines, using modems which they buy at the computer store, just the way they are on the Internet in the US. French networking is going to need some librarians / organizers / navigators soon, just as the Internet so badly needs them now. *** 2) Mountaineering Online Another item -- not online, unfortunately, but online isn't everything, yet -- is a mountaineering library which might be of interest to any Sierra Clubbers on the lists. The "Bibliothe`que / Centre de Documentation" of the "ENSA / Ecole Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme", has as its mission the coverage of "mountain sports, alpinism, rock-climbing, hiking, sking, ski-touring, skating, air sports, mountain-biking, white-water, bungi-jumping, ...", in all their manifestations, including, "history, technique and teaching, safety, physiology, training, medicine, environment and mountain ecology, economics, tourism, law,...". They have assembled: 6000 items, including books, guides, atlases; 300 journals (175 French, 125 foreign); a collection of topographic maps, both European and non-; vertical files of trek "itineraries"; clipping and photo-files; and other interesting things. They have an online national sports bibliographic database, to which they are a contributor, called "HERACLES", of which more details if anyone is interested. This "ENSA" library also is located in Chamonix, next door to the Bibliothe`que Municipale, in the giant sports centre (when you get to the town, look for the 1960s, pre-stressed concrete, looks-as- though-it-just-landed-from-Mars architectural nightmare -- every ski resort has one). Visits are by appointment. Address: Ecole Nationale de Ski et d'Alpinisme, Bibliothe`que-Documentation, B.P. 24, 74401 Chamonix Cedex, telephone: 50-55-30-08 *** 3) The Me'diathe`que de l'IMAG, Grenoble Ever heard of "pro-active" librarians? How about library service based on Usenet? Grenoble's "IMAG / Institut d'Informatique et de Mathe'matiques Applique'es de Grenoble" was an early user of networked telecommunications -- library catalog "listings" to users in 1970, batch-loaded cooperative cataloging (with several other research libraries -- records were transferred each night via the Transpac telecom network) during the 1980s, all the problems of phenomenal growth in user access and demand in the late 1980s and now in the 1990s. By 1990 they had 235 workstations connected to the institute network, and a growing problem of information overload. Enter the library. They have developed their cataloging, available online, and they ported it to a UNIX platform in September 1991. Internet-access has been added, and the librarians make active reference and bibliography use of its capacities. File transfer projects are under way, notably with the science library at Carnegie-Mellon. Theses and teaching materials are cataloged and made available online. E-mail reference service is offered: the IMAG library receives about 15 e-mail reference questions per day now from its 700 users, all of whom have library resources, Internet access, and WAIS version 6.0 on their screens. Most interesting, however, of IMAG's successful attempt to interject library services into the midst of its institute's networking, is their imaginative use of Usenet. The library and the institute have mounted several Usenet newsgroups: Imag.me'diathe`que, for library announcements and discussion, Imag.officiel, for institute official business, Imag.revues, which indexes and annotates leading periodicals in the field, and actively supports Fnet.se'minaires, Misc.books.technical, News.announce.conference, Comp.research.Japan, Comp.doctechreports, and many other newsgroups. The IMAG librarian, Franc,oise Renzetti, sees librarians definitely as one of the professions, along with "computer scientists, mathematicians, geographers, anthropologists, sociologists...", which will "shape the evolution of the information carried on the networks" (Franc,oise Renzetti and Serge Rouveyrol, "Processus d'Innovation a` la Me'diathe`que de l'IMAG", _Bulletin des Bibliothe`ques de France_, t.37, no.2, 1992, pp.72-6). She puts the librarians' role in quotes, though, with question-marks: she is concerned -- a concern which I share -- that although the role is there for librarians to grasp, they might not grasp it, to the detriment both of themselves and of network users. IMAG is available to outsiders from WAIS servers. *** 4) French Online Libraries note (updated as of March 15, 1993) (Merci to Jacques Faule of the BPI for initial help on this.) a) Minitel "kiosk" Libraries. The following French library opacs and services may be reached from anywhere via Minitel (free MAC or DOS diskettes for Minitel -- some downloading capacity now is available -- may be obtained in the US and Canada from voice telephone 914-694-6266, 914-399-0800). As some of you have discovered, access policies change (SIBIL no longer is available -- see 3617 PANCA). Access to all this is very INexpensive: 3614 TOLBIAC Bibliothe`que de France (info.-- no opac, yet) 3614 BMLYON Bib.Municipale de Lyon (info.+ opac) 3614 BIB Bib.Municipale de Grenoble (info.+ opac) 3615 ABCDOC Archives, Bibliothe`ques, Centres de Documentation (directory) 3615 BPI Bibliothe`que Publique d'Information (Centre Pompidou, Paris) (info.+ opac) 3615 DASTUM Photote`que Dastum (info.+ opac) 3615 MIRADOC Bibliothe`que Universite' de Metz (info.+ opac) 3615 VDP15 Vide'othe`que de Paris (info.+ opac) 3615 VILLETTE Me'diathe`que, Cite' des Sciences et de l'Industrie (info.+ opac) 3617 CCN Catalogue Collectif National des Publications en Se'rie (national union catalog, serials) 3617 PANCA Pancatalogue (national union catalog, books) b) Minitel "V23" Direct-Dial Libraries. The following French library services may be reached by a direct-dial telephone call, either from a Minitel which can do so (European terminals can, but US Minitel service distributed per the above cannot), or using a V23 modem (available in European computer stores). 22.97.11.11 Amiens, Bibliothe`que d' (info.+ opac) 90.49.38.88 Arles, Bibliothe`que Municipale d'(info.+ opac) 31.86.14.14 Caen, Bibliothe`que Municipale de (info.+ opac) 50.53.28.70 Chamonix, Bibliothe`que Municipale de (opac) (beginning April 1, 1993) 16.1.64.48.60.07 Chilly-Mazarin, Bibliothe`que de (info.+ opac) 16.1.42.77.19.16 IRCAM (Centre de Recherche Musicale, Centre Pompidou) (opac) 49.73.23.30 Niort, Bibliothe`que de (info.+ opac) 50.58.57.85 Sallanches, Bibliothe`que Municipale de (opac) 20.25.43.50 Tourcoing, Me'diathe`que de (info.+ opac) WAIS (only) IMAG / Me'diathe`que de l'Institut d'Informatique et de Mathe'matiques Applique's de Grenoble *** ISSN 1071 - 5916 end .