...of the eighteenth century, the Library expanded its holdings after the 1789 revolution, when it acquired convent and emigre libraries. At that time, a number of very rare medieval printed manuscripts made their way into the Library's archives.

It became a municipal library in 1803 and the city now boasts more than 20 branch libraries, a bookmobile service, as well as a soon-to-be-opened multimedia library named after a famous Toulousian author, Jose Cabanis. In 1935, the Perigord building, which currently houses the patrimonial collection, was built and it has been recently renovated.

The patrimonial collection, one of the richest in France, includes texts from the 16th to the 19th centuries, music partitions, 19th century popular and scientific literature, illuminated manuscripts, written correspondence, and special collections. Much of this fragile collection requires special handling.

Until recently, the Toulouse Library used the multiLIS system, an older Integrated Library System (ILS) whose graphical interface left something to be desired. The catalogue wasn't online, either; patrons had to go to one of the library branches in person to sleuth the whereabouts of a desired book. To make up for some of this inconvenience, the Toulouse system employs an interlibrary loan system, but Library leaders knew it was time to take their system into the 21st...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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