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With the rise of the Web in the mid-1990s, the role and use of traditional documents, such as the paper versions of books and periodicals, has been the subject of some discussion on the part of university librarians. In addition to discussions held at meetings and conferences, librarians and other stakeholders are also involved in the scanning of collections. This article focuses on the challenges associated with the transition from analogue** to numeric versions and from the traditional to the virtual library in the universities of Québec since the end of the 1990s. The proceedings of conferences and seminars that focused on the dissemination and conservation of scanned documents helped identify some of the challenges associated with this type of collection in university libraries. With the help of a document prepared by the Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), the author summarizes the major scanning projects currently in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work described in this article began as the result of a shared lack of knowledge and appreciation of the collections of rare Québec books. This conclusion was put forward by Yvan Lamonde, professor at McGill University, specializing in the history of ideas and of printing in Québec, and endorsed by a group of researchers and professionals working in libraries. This article is based on a paper presented by the author at a seminar titled Le livre ancien, de la Nouvelle-France a demain. Les collections de Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec that was part of the programme of the conference titled Rabelais ou « Les adventures des gens ». L'hybridité des récits rabelaisiens. The conference, organised jointly by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and professors Diane Desrosiers-Bonin, of McGill University, Claude La Charité, of the Université du Québec a Rimouski and Renée-Claude Breitenstein, of McGill University, was held from August 27 to 31, 2006. The work presented in this article is not to be confused with the bibliographic work carried out by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec on its own collection of rare books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]