Describes the current efforts being made to complete the new Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) and uses the experience gained in this project and the ideals of pub lic access to electronic texts, which in part it represents, to shed light on some of the political, economic, social and intellectual problems of this peri od. Issues discussed include: freeing the word from the printed word by deciding whether and to what extent the texts contained in the books of the Bibliothèque Nationale might be considered separately from the phys ical books themselves; the building of the BNF itself and the construction of a system which will make the infor mation contained in the collections available to the general public and the outside world; the many political meetings and debates surrounding the BNF, including the trends of 'dirigisme', 'Colbertisme', 'biblio thèques pour tous', and 'la crise de l'edition'; and the crisis facing French publishers and the threat posed by electronic publishing (online and CD- ROM databases).
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