The writer had visited the BnF on November, 1997. The new buildings
are very impressive. Nevertheless, the idea of building a library for the public
to lead them into a realm of reaserch of the BnF is even more thoughtful. It
seemes that the government of France has already made good cultural preparation
for her citizens of entering the 21 century. The article includes history of
National Franch Library, collections, buildings, bibliographic system, and
readers services. Most of the information is from the library's bulletin, some
are from the guidences of their librarian when the writer visited the library.
While writing this article, the writer couldn't stop comparing our own national
library with the BnF. May this article provide good references for our
librarians!