The quarter-folded newspaper bundles are wrapped in kraft paper, and stacked on shelves for tens of meters. Confetti of yellowed paper, escaped from the bundles, litter the floor of the BnF reserve. The mass of semi-decaying periodicals, dating mainly from the 19th century, is unimaginable. "All the same, do not think that all our collections are in this state, " panicked the director of the press department, Catherine Aurérin. Verification made, these tied packages only represent a small part of what is stored, the rest being fairly dignified stored flat.
In the bowels of his reserves
Legal deposit for the press, the National Library keeps 247,000 titles, including the most eccentric, the most confidential, the most ephemeral, and the oldest. All you have to do is ask, and Catherine Aurérin dives into the bowels of her reserves, in order to get out some nuggets. That day, she returns with a cart full of gray boxes, closed with
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