Conference of European National Librarians (CENL)

At the Federal Palace, Alain Berset closes the annual meeting of the Conference of European National Librarians. He opens, in English, with a sentence by Hilary Mantel: “I once stole a book. It was really just the once, and at the time I called it borrowing.”

The book the novelist had kept had not been read in twenty-five years. Today it would be withdrawn from the shelves to free up space. “As a book-lover, I regret this. As the Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, I have to welcome it.” The speech deals with digitisation and the future of national libraries.

Speeches on this site

• Conférence des bibliothécaires nationaux européens (CENL) (French-language page)