Room X – Bibliographical Research

Room X offers a research space where readers can use tools complementary to the online BnF Catalogue général to identify and locate documents within the collections of the BnF as well as outside, create bibliographies, identify and complete a reference, obtain an immediate piece of information and conduct biographical research. The room’s staff is at your disposal to help and advise you in your research. 
 

Room X – Bibliographical Research 
© Thierry Ardouin / Tendance Floue / BnF

CollectioNs

  • Catalogs and national bibliographies
  • Bibliographies: general, specialized, usual, retrospective
  • French and foreign encyclopaediae
  • Biographical dictionaries 
  • Former files of the French National Library

Services offered 

  • Help for documentary research, navigating the BnF collections, advice on how to use paper and electronic collections. 
  • Group rooms
  • Numerous computer stations for readers (free placement)

Noteworthy Collections 

  • A comprehensive collection of printed catalogs of the BnF Collection and of tools detailing the history of the catalogs. 
  • The complete French national bibliography (except the commercial Feuilleton papers: see digitized Documents: 1814-1900) and its previous iterations:  Journal de la librairie (1763-1789) and the Journal typographique et bibliographique (1792-1810).
  • Specialized bibliographies, especially in humanities and human sciences
  • Paper files classified by topics (the catalog of the BnF has no indexation prior to 1980)
  • Biographical files
  • Phone books and the Didot Bottin in microfilm form
     
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