Gallica
French national library's digital collection of books, images, maps, newspapers and other documents.
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Find a digitised heritage document
Search the French national library’s digitised books, maps and newspapers.
Check first: Record the catalogue entry, edition and reuse terms.
Compare this resource with other directory records →
Compare an ISBN or ISSN with the publication you are citing →
Citing a passage: record, page image or OCR text?
- Catalogue record
- Identify the work and edition.
- Digitised image
- Check the passage actually read; use OCR as a lead.
- Locate the edition and pagination in the record and document.
- Compare automated transcription with the page image.
- Keep the reference and conditions for the reproduction used.
Fictional example: OCR reads “1898” while the image shows “1890”. Cite the text checked against the image and report any remaining reading uncertainty.
Your useful record: Keep the record, edition, page number, reproduction link and checked passage.
Metadata rights and reproduction rights are different.
Editorial method informed by BnF — API et jeux de données. Documentation consulted on . Examples are fictional exercises, not results from a live service test.
Distinguish the record and digital reproduction
BnF explains that metadata and digitised documents have different conditions. Identify the record and reproduction actually consulted before preparing attribution or reuse.
- Metadata
- The descriptive-data licence alone does not determine file rights.
- Document
- Read Gallica conditions and any partner-specific conditions.
- Record
- Keep the item record, edition, source and intended use.
- Technical record
- The BnF portal describes each API or dataset, its contents, access and associated rights.
- Recognised text
- Text mode comes from character recognition whose quality depends on the document and digitisation. For a quotation, locate the passage in the page image: an OCR error can alter a name, number or punctuation.
- Missing result
- A full-text search with no result does not establish that a word is absent from every page. Check text-mode availability, spelling variants and the digitised page before concluding; retain the query used.
Can I apply the metadata licence to a scan?
No. Read the digitised document’s conditions and any partner conditions; retain the source and intended use.
Official documentation
Documentation consulted on .
Editorial selection, without website certification. Read our method.