France: The BNF (Natl. Library of France) Uses Private Partners to Digitize its Collection

From a LeMonde Article (In French, Mechanical Translation via Google):

The National Library of France announced Wednesday, July 6, launching an appeal to private partners for the digitization and enhancement of its collections. “Today is a historic step,” said President BNF, Bruno Racine , during a joint press conference in Paris with the Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand , and the Commissioner General for investment, René Ricol.

The BNF has identified 12 areas that can be scanned in partnership with private actors. These include ancient books from 1470 to 1700, a set of 300 000 French and 500 000 printed in the public domain, the French press from 1780 to 1940, the 78 rpm records and LPs, modern or medieval manuscripts, or photography and French cinema until World War II.

The total cost of digitization programs amount to 150 million euros (including public and private shares), representing more than 20 times the annual budget of about 7 million dedicated to scanning since 2007.

Read the Complete Article (via LeMonde, Mechanical Translation via Google)

Read the Official Announcement (Google Translation of French Doc; PDF)

Filed under: Digital Preservation, Libraries, National Libraries, News