The first data of the BiblioBase are online

Elsa Courant
10 December 2023

Circumstances of the publication of the data from the BiblioBase
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The result of a FAIR research program

After many months of reading and enriching the data, the BiblioBase edition team is pleased to announce the publication of the entire raw dataset. They are available in open access on Nakala, under CC-BY-NC licence. The complete dataset of the BiblioBase contains 153 843 bibliographical references on 19^th century French literature. They include informations on the language of the titles, on their signature and on the precise week of announcement of their availability at the time. The BiblioBase is a result of a collective work of open science based on FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). This work has received the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR), with the ANR project e-BdF coordinated by Elsa Courant (2023-2026).

An editorial journey

The BiblioBase project is based on the idea that the Bibliographie de la France is a precious resource for estimating any evolution of literary creation, especially during the 19^th century (know more). Every year, the Bibliographie de la France published a summary of books sorted by domains. As a result, we can easily identify all books considered as literary during that period of time.

In 2023, the financial support from the ANR allows us to launch the first stage of tiping the titles with the help of a private corporation. We then received 86 documents resuming literary publications for the years 1811 to 1900, with the exception of 1857 to 1865 summaries were temporarily abandonned in the Bibliographie de la France. An edition team is then gathered to check and complete the dataset. Two researchers (Elsa Courant and Jordi Brahamcha-Marin) and two engineers (Gaëlle Lafage et Francesca Guglielmi) work on the BiblioBase. The complete dataset is rendered public in december 2023.

First research perspectives

The utility of the BiblioBase for any lexicoraphical or bibliometrical study is quickly confirmed. First research results of the database will be presented at the colloquium “L’Année 1824 : un nouveau régime littéraire ?” (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 13th Jan. 2024) and the colloquium “La Bibliographie de la France : mémoire du paysage littéraire français ?” (Univ. de la Sorbonne / BnF, 23th and et 24th Jan. 2024).

A second version of the BiblioBase is actually being processed. It will contain all detailed informations on books identified in the first version of the database : complete titles, prices, formats, but also social and professionnal categories, printing places, libraries, and many more !