All the World's Memory

00:00:00 The makers wish to thank the Bibliothèque Nationale

00:02:42 Confronted with these bulging repositories

00:04:36 in the richest department of all: Manuscripts.

00:05:14 Another museum is the Medals room.

00:05:39 the Bibliothèque Nationale now houses another 3 million volumes each century.

00:06:03 MAPS AND PLANS

00:06:23 It has taken centuries to inventory the six million books

00:07:00 a catalogue which will forever be a work in progress.

00:08:29 If an issue is missing, it will be requested.

00:08:53 Who knows what will be the most reliable testament to our civilization?

00:09:47 never again to leave it, it is stamped.

00:10:37 Once a week the books are sorted

00:11:08 Twenty identification cards are placed in different files

00:11:43 in the maze of shelves which is more that 60 miles long.

00:13:33 For who is to say what is the noblest, the finest, the rarest?

00:14:21 "The stone of Baghdad" and the jewels that surround it?

00:14:53 This binding bearing the arms of Henri II?

00:15:10 These treasures need to be preserved

00:15:46 Ointment preserves the bindings.

00:16:13 Newspapers, the paper of which quickly disintegrates, are microfilmed.

00:17:03 Once the book has been found a slip of paper takes its place.

00:19:33 There, all books were equal

00:20:04 Astrophysics, physiology, theology, taxonomy, philology, cosmology

00:20:40 a secret with a beautiful name, a secret called happiness.