Flood prevention and protection at the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Abstract

To begin with, let me introduce myself: my name is Christiane Baryla and I am the Director of the IFLA Core activity on Preservation and Conservation or PAC. This programme is hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris and this is the reason why I am authorised to speak about flood prevention and protection in the National Library. This paper is the last one in a morning dedicated to terrorism attacks and climate changes. When you listen to criminal experts and to flood specialists in Paris, they both say the same thing: we don’t know where or when, but we do know that a terrorist attack is possible and has to be planned for. We do know that a major flood in Paris may occur, but current weather forecasting knowledge is unable to give us any probability for the year or the month of that eventuality.