Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of 16 national libraries designed to clarify how national libraries attempt to justify their web archiving activities. Results indicate they envisage that a) the benefits brought about by their initiatives are greater than the overall costs, b) the costs imposed on libraries are greater than the costs…

Shows how l'Heure Joyeuse, a children's library started in Paris in 1923 as a gift from U.S. philanthropists, became a model of open-access, user-oriented public libraries. L'Heure Joyeuse's unique role in the development of public libraries in France from before 1900 to the present is described. (41 references) (EAM)