French-Vietnamese digital library launched

From left to right: Director of École Française d’Extrême Orient (The French School of Asian Studies) Philippe Le Failler, French Ambassador Nicolas Warnery, and Director of National Library of Việt Nam Kiều Thúy Nga seen at a press conference on the launch of the Flamboyant Library in Hà Nội yestreday. VNS Photo Thúy Hằng

HÀ NỘI — A digital library featuring more than 2,000 documents collected from the national libraries of Việt Nam and France has been launched.

The library, a result of collaboration between the French National Library and the National Library of Việt Nam, is entitled Flamboyant Library and is part of the ‘Common Heritage’ collection of the French National Library.

The library recreates the interactions in culture, history, colonisation and science between France and Việt Nam from the 17th century to the mid-20th century.

More than 2,000 documents presented in different forms such as prints, manuscripts, maps, paintings and photos, from the collections of two libraries and partners can be found on the website heritage.bnf.fr/france-vietnam.

Alongside the documents, the library also includes articles by French and Vietnamese experts, researchers, and librarians that can help readers gain a better understanding of the historical context of the documents in the Flamboyant Library. The library is available in French and Vietnamese.

The French National Library has the largest collection of items on colonial-era Việt Nam in the world. For the first time, tens of thousands of documents since the Indochina period, from 1922 to 1954, have been digitised.

“This is an extremely diverse collection of documents, including translations of Western books, as well as Vietnamese famous ones, new literature works, textbooks and technical books. Part of this collection has been selected by the French National Library and has been presented on this digital library,” French Ambassador Nicolas Warnery said at a press conference on the library’s launch in Hà Nội yesterday.

According to the Director of National Library of Việt Nam (NLVN), Kiều Thúy Nga, among the documents presented on the website, more than 1,100 are from the NLVN with different formats such as print, digital, sound files, and images.

With the role of connecting French and Vietnamese history, the library features documents in eight main categories: Circulations, Tradition, Theology & Spirituality, Literature, Cultural Transfer, Dynasties and Government, Science and Society, and Economy. VNS