British and French Libraries facing the economic crisis1

In the context of the economic crisis that we have experienced since the fall of 2008, culture did not appear to be a priority for the British and French leaders. Having started before the financial downturn, the phenomenon of precarious situations for employees of cultural institutions and the constant call for private funds have since become the norm, including across libraries. Although France has not yet engaged in brutal and massive library shutdowns as has the United Kingdom, important changes regarding the status of workers, directly inspired by the American and British liberal models, have been progressively altering these institutions. Does this mean that the French model has tended to imitate, for budget reasons, the British model? Undoubtedly, it has. Therefore, when it comes to libraries, although the concept of "Big Society" established by David Cameron has had dramatic consequences in the United Kingdom, France has not turned a deaf ear to what "Big Society” has implied for libraries: doing more with less.