Gestion Informatique Documentaire

Gestion Informatique Documentaire

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POST MAIL MUSEUM, Paris, France

The Post Mail Museum, a website…an experience…

by Pascal Rabier and Monika Nowacka, (keepers of collections) and Marie Bech, IT manager.

Created in 1942, as a public institution, the Paris Museum Post office is a place of conservation and presentation of the postal and philatelic inheritance. It is centred on the writing, the fine arts, the history and the company. From the postman’s boots to the heroes of Air-mail, by evoking the stamps of France, the collections of the museum tell a story, not only that of the mail, but also that of the French in their daily life.

The museum, installed in 1973 in the district of Montparnasse, displays its permanent collections in 11 rooms with thematic exhibitions in 4 rooms. It also houses temporary exhibitions of historical and artistic matter. Around these events, many cultural activities and teaching are provided, including workshops for children, animations, conferences. The museum has a specialized library.

In 1993, the public institution was dissolved and the museum came under the supervision and the direction of the “La Poste” group. Since this date, it manages two collections, those of the State and those of the Post Office. The museum was labelled “museum of France” in 2002. Its collections are very rich and varied: postal objects and furniture, iconographic documents, historical archives, works of mail art and postal art, archives of manufacture of the French stamps and of the French colonies. (www.museedelaposte.fr)

The process of databasing of the collections began in 1993 with a software package that developed expensive maintenance costs. In 2000, the institution chose Micromusée for its collections and Mobytext for the library. Today, Micromusée (90 000 records) continues to growing with integration of the images. Mobytext has 11,200 records and 12,400 periodicals recorded. Because of the obligation of the audit, the priority is the retrospective computerized inventory. For reasons of access, the museum decided to put on line its various collections in 2008. (The museum’s website frequently has 20,000 ‘hits’ a month).

Le site du Musée


As the collections are extremely varied and diverse, it soon became apparent that the creation of the on-line database would take longer than expected. We had been confronted with some internal problems, for example, the creation of a new file including more than 6000 references (classification Yvert and Tellier). The project began in April and was online on November 2008. In terms of human resources employed, one person was in charge of the creation of the database (realisation, contents, export and copyrights) and another with the technical aspect (backup of data, server import, and the design). The Company Amen is in charge for hosting and server side.
The project was well managed and the Mobydoc team was available constantly to advise us.
We hope in 2009 to put on line the catalogue of the museum’s library by acquiring OPACWeb for Mobytext or the E-Catalog module.