I went on a mission to Festival du Livre de Paris 2024 on Friday 12th April. There was not too much people (it's Paris, so there is always people, but it was managable) and I had a blast! :)
My objectives were following:
- search for music and cinema themed BDs - I proposed that we house the music and cinema themed BDs in l'Espace musique et cinema as a way to attract more people. I wanted to discover what is the production of music themed BDs in France and suggest some titles to my colleagues who are in charge of BDs
- Meet publishers and artist for potential contacts - my girlfriend is organizing a book fair in her town so I helped her talking with people and trying to make contacts
I believe both objectives were successful! :)
First, I saw at least ten different titles with music and cinema topic. Two or three I knew, but I saw some that I didn't know about. I talked with some workers of publishing houses, and one girl told me that French publishers are into music these days. It made me happy to hear it, and excited! I took photos of the titles so I can find out more info about them online and to see does our médiathèque have them.
Second, I talked with couple of authors, mostly children's literature and took contacts. We explained that my girlfriend is organizing a small book fair and would they be interested to come and participate. I'm happy to say that as of writing this post, one author officialy accepted to come!
Third, I discovered a publishing house of a daughter of Jacques Canetti, a talent agent who discovered a lot of famous French singers. His daughter Françoise, wrote a biography of her dad, and is publishing some old music, through her publishing house Productions Jacques Canetti. She was on the festival and I talked with her. I took her contact and will try to contact her if she wants to come and do a conference at our médiathèque about her fathers life during the next Nuit de la Lecture. The theme is "Patrimoine", and there is nothing more patrimoine than French music.
For now, I hope that adult department will agree to split the BD collection so we can take some to our space. Cross your fingers!