Libraries Yvelines

After the First World War, the Book Committee on Children's Libraries settled in the context of the reconstruction of libraries for youth. The first "Joyful Hour" opened in Brussels in 1920. Founded in 1935 at the initiative of Antoinette Kont, that of Versailles (became a municipal library in 1977), the creation of its conservation fund towards 1980 (by Gilberta Mantoux) was created for editorial production from the 20 s and 30 s. With 1 620 volumes covering the literatures of Romance languages, that of youth from the years 20 to 60, and a specific collection entered here after 1940, Happy Hour intends to combine the provision of books for youth (on-site consultation, loans for external exhibitions) and public reading, workshops also animate the life of the library.

Organized in the prestigious framework of the Hotel des affaires Etrangères built in 1762, under Louis XV, this memory of books inherited the collections of the libraries (Saisies à la Révolution) of Louis XVI, his queen Marie-Antoinette and Madame Barry, and has since enriched, since then, purchases and donations: with an encyclopaedic fund whose axes of excellence are the history of Versailles, the chronologies of the th, th and th centuries and the music, the municipal library of Versailles is therefore, thanks to this heritage which makes it one of the most important of France. They are almost 700 000 documents (including 100 000 volumes of old books, and over 40 000 free access titles, reference books, documentaries, novels, comic strips, practical manuals), and a large number of periodicals that are offered in this place of study and research, also open to a wide audience. And for those that the large embarrassed quiet spaces, it should be understood that the network actually consists of 200 000 documents in free access, as the 9 neighborhood libraries (2 reserved for young people: those of Happy Hour and Saint-Louis; 4 for adults and youth: Celles, Porchefontaine, Prés-aux-Bois and Vauban; 3 for adults: those of Notre-Dame, Clagny and Inter-Ages University are mentioned. Finally, to those who prefer the audition at the reading, the library of Versailles has a discotheque with 20 000 recordings available.