Else Delaunay in memoriam
Else
Delaunay (1933–2024), here in Mozhaisk (Russia) 2008, at the IFLA Newspaper
Conference
Else Delaunay passed away almost unnoticed in
July 2024, after communication with her had been interrupted since around 2020.
Whether it was an accident or COVID, she could no longer be reached by mail,
telephone or electronically. Even friends and contacts in Paris had no
knowledge of her whereabouts.
Else Margrethe Dahl was born in
Denmark. Her father, Svend Dahl (1887–1963), was the renowned Danish national
librarian from 1943 until his retirement in 1952. (Endnote 1) It is apparent
that she received a good education, spoke English, French and German, and it came
as no surprise that she developed an interest in the library profession. She
was particularly attracted to France, where she soon felt at home. She married
the physician Albert Delaunay (1910–1993), who worked as Chef du Service de
Pathologie expérimentale for the Institut Louis Pasteur and who already had a
family from a previous marriage. He wrote a history of the Institut (Endnote 2)
and a history of biology that was translated into other languages.
Else worked as a cataloguer in the serials
department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Endnote 3), where she later
took over the Preservation and Microfilming section (1989–1998) and became
responsible for newspapers in particular. (Endnote 4) It was the 1987 London
conference (First International Symposium on Newspaper Preservation and Access)
that sparked a broader professional interest in newspapers and also made a
lasting impression on Else. (Endnote 5) Subsequently, the Working Group for Newspapers
within the Serials Section of IFLA gained a degree of autonomy as a round
table, and the newspaper work picked up speed, thanks to the commitment of
highly motivated and energetic international members such as Henry Snyder,
Geoffrey Hamilton, Else Delaunay, Ed King and Majlis Bremer-Laamanen. Else's Guidelines
for the preservation microfilming of newspapers (1996) is particularly
worthy of mention here.
It soon became clear that, however energetic
the small group was, it lacked the time and infrastructure to work on projects
seriously. So the focus was placed more on events, international cooperation
and the exchange of experience. Since this could not be achieved within the
two-hour time slot allotted during the IFLA annual conference, a series of 2 to
3-day mid-term meetings at different locations was set up, which allowed us to
target an audience which hardly ever attended IFLA conferences (if only for cost
reasons). It also made it possible for the special situation of the country or
region to be highlighted, information about newspaper holdings to be provided
and the importance of newspapers as a medium to be emphasized. The most
important contributions presented at these conferences in places like Santiago
de Chile, Salt Lake City, Moscow, Stockholm, Cape Town, Canberra and Shanghai
were published in ten volumes of proceedings. It goes without saying that a
colleague as experienced as Else Delaunay played an important role, both as a
lecturer and as a co-organizer.
In addition, Else worked tirelessly on the
volumes of the French Press Bibliography, for which she recorded six French
administrative departments. During her retirement, she continued to work in the
library as a "conservateur honoraire".
As Else had already stated in her
article "How I became a member..." (p. 27), "We became a kind of
family!" The hard core of the Round Table had the idea of meeting annually
even after retirement, now as a kind of family reunion, which also took place,
at different locations. Since there are no records of this, they are mentioned
here:
2014 Berlin
2015 St. Albans
2016 France
2017 Mikkeli
2018 Edinburgh
2019 Halle
2020 Norwich (dropped because of
COVID)
2023 Norwich
2024 Porvoo
Else attended these meetings until Halle, it
was only thereafter that contact with
her was lost, almost certainly for health reasons. During a random internet
search, a notification was found that she had died on July 11, 2024.
While Else was characterized as a
pillar of support in the committee work, it should be added that she had a warm
personality, was open to ideas and plans, kind, helpful and generous, and
endowed with a contagious humor. It is indeed not only a knowledgeable and
hardworking colleague who has left us, but a lovable member of our family!
“When Else was a student, working in the old Salle Ovale at
the BN in rue
Richelieu, someone told the then Director “You know whose
daughter you
have in the reading room, don’t you?”
I don’t know if that was how she was recruited.
She told me once that when she was at school during World War II, the students knitted themselves berets in red, white and blue, the colours of the RAF, and there was nothing the German forces could do about it.”
Bibliothèque
nationale. France : Catalogue général des périodiques (1987)
Note : Reproduction sur microfiches du
fichier manuel pour les périodiques français et étrangers de la Bibliothèque
nationale des origines à 1959
Guide de l'utilisateur du Catalogue
général des périodiques de la Bibliothèque nationale, des origines à 1959.
Paris: Chadwyck-Healey 1988. 33
leaves.
The
Impact of Storage and Housing on Preservation of Serial Publications.
Managing the preservation of serial
literature; sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions and the Library of Congress. Ed. by Merrily A. Smith. München 1992, p. 38-
Various
Restoration Processes of Periodicals with regard to Experiences of the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Bestandssicherung und Bestandsrestaurierung;
Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut. Hrsg. von Susan Aramayo ... Berlin 1992, p. 54-
(with
Jean-Marie Arnoult): Serials Preservation in Western Europe: The French
Example.
Managing the preservation of serial
literature; sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions and the Library of Congress. Ed. by Merrily A. Smith. München 1992, p. 193-
Guidelines for the preservation
microfilming of newspapers.
IFLA Professional Reports 49 (1996)
Le devenir des papiers modernes 1: Quelle politique pour quelle mémoire ?
(Reproduction numérisée) journée du 16 décembre 1997 / Pierre-Marc de Biasi,
Louise Merzeau, éd., présent.; Else Delaunay... [et al.], participants.
Description matérielle : 4 disques
compacts enregistrables (49 min 59 s, 35 min 12 s, 1 h 03 min 19 s, 31 min 27
s)
Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France
2000. Auteur du texte : Else Delaunay
Bilan de programmes de sauvegarde lancées
à travers le monde: succès et échecs. II. Amérique du Nord, Europe.
Proceedings of the IFLA Symposium
Managing the Preservation of Periodicals and Newspapers. München: Saur 2002, 84
Bibliographie de la presse française
politique et d'information générale des origines à 1944. 43: Haute-Loire. Paris: Bibliothèque
nationale (2003). 60 p.
Bibliografia gazet: filozofia, strategia i
metodologia w świetle kilku konkretnych przykładów.
Gazety. Zasoby. Opracowanie.
Ochrona. Digitalizacja. Promocja / Informacja – newspapers, resources,
processing, preservation, digitization, promotion, information. Poznań: Universitet im. Adama
Mickiewicza 2006, 281–288
Newspaper bibliography: philosophy,
strategy, and methodology by the light of some precise samples.
Gazety. Zasoby. Opracowanie.
Ochrona. Digitalizacja. Promocja / Informacja – newspapers, resources,
processing, preservation, digitization, promotion, information. Poznań: Universitet im. Adama
Mickiewicza 2006, 289–296
Developments of French newspaper publishing:
a general view.
International newspaper
librarianship for the 21st century. München: Saur 2006, 97
Newspaper digitisation in France:
present developments.
Newspapers of the world online. München: Saur 2006, 49
(with Isabelle Rollet): Newspaper
access and preservation in France.
International newspaper
librarianship for the 21st century. München: Saur 2006, 235
Bibliographie de la presse française
politique et d'information générale, des origines à 1944. 3: Allier. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale (2007). 133 p.
Digital ingest of current newspapers
by the Bibliothèque nationale de France: The situation end 2007/ beginning 2008.
The impact of digital technology on
contemporary and historic newspapers. München: Saur 2008, 93
La digitalización de periódicos en
Francia: avances y estrategias.
Newspapers collection management:
printed and digital challenges. München: Saur 2008,
229
Utilidad y uso de bibliografías de
periódicos al trabajar en la creación de proyectos de reproducción.
Newspapers collection management:
printed and digital challenges. München: Saur 2008, 289
Utility and use of newspaper
bibliographies when working out and setting up reproduction projects.
Newspapers collection management: printed
and digital challenges. München: Saur 2008, 281
Newspaper digitization in France:
development and strategies.
Newspapers collection management:
printed and digital challenges. München: Saur 2008, 223
(avec Philippe Vallas) Bibliographie de
la presse française politique et d'information générale, des origines à 1944.
44: Loire-Atlantique. (anciennement Loire-inférieure). Paris: Bibliothèque
nationale (2009). 155 p.
Bibliothèque nationale de France:
legal deposit of electronic files yielded for printing of newspaper issues: the
situation spring 2009.
Newspapers old and new:
international perspectives. Legal deposit and research in the digital era. München: W. de Gruyter 2009, 183
Национальная библиотека Франции: Объязательные
экземпляры электронных файлов для типографской печати газетных выпусков.
Newspapers old and new:
international perspectives. Legal deposit and research in the digital era. München: W. de Gruyter 2009, 191
(avec Patrice Caillot et Laurence Varret) Bibliographie
de la presse française politique et d'information générale, des origines à
1944. 8: Ardennes. Paris:
Bibliothèque nationale (2010). 87 p.
Physical preservation of newspaper
resources (hardcopies archives, microfilm archives): the practice at the
Bibliothèque nationale de France (The French National Library).
Digital preservation and access to
news and views. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts 2010, 1
Bibliographie de la presse française
politique et d'information générale, des origines à 1944. 24: Dordogne. Paris: Bibliothèque
nationale (2013). 115 p.
(avec Valérie Gressel et Julien Schuh) Bibliographie
de la presse française politique et d'information générale des origines à 1944.
10: Aube. Paris: Bibliothèque
nationale (2015). 126 p.
How I became a member of the IFLA
RTN.
Newspapers on the mind – around the
world. The IFLA Round Table on Newspapers (RTN) 1989–2009.
Norderstedt: BoD 2017, 25–27
Hartmut Walravens
Else and
former members of the RTN (from left to right):
G. Hamilton, Majlis Bremer-Laamanen, C. Bell,
H. Walravens
Endnotes
1.
Palle Birkeland: Svend Dahl. Libri
1964:3/4, 157–160.
2.
L'Institut Pasteur des origines à
aujourd'hui. Paris: France-Empire 1962. 367 p.
3.
She was involved in the
compilation of the Catalogue général des périodiques (1987).
4.
Else Delaunay: How I became a
member of the IFLA Round Table on Newspapers, 25.
5.
The conference was organized by
Eve Johansson and Stephen Green as part of the IFLA Working Group for
Newspapers.
