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Recent developments taking place in the French museum libraries hint at a shift in their administrative status and functions. Aim of this paper is to assess whether this phenomenon can be verified both at a national and international level. Today, it is more widely recognised that libraries cost money and require well trained staff so as spacious premises, factors which may or may not be taken into account in any preliminary financial or architectural programming. Refurbishment as well as new museum projects provide an excellent basis when it comes to analysing the physical or symbolic "donations" made to libraries in recent years. By examining some of the most recent realisations, we will try to evaluate how a change of image, working conditions and even location may be the result of architectural and interior space design work, in an attempt to marry the wishes of the museum authorities with the needs expressed by the librarians themselves. On one hand, increasing emphasis is put on libraries and documentation departments in the various services offered by museums to researchers, educators as well as to a broader public, contributing directly to their influence and communication policy particularly on the Internet. The fact that more and more libraries keep their records in computer enables them to provide shared or "virtual" catalogues as well as access to local or national networks whether specialised or not. On the other hand, museums may decide to "outsource" their libraries, thereby reducing activity and budget to a minimum or even doing away with them completely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IPinfo was designed to meet the needs of information literacy education and facilitate the management of research projects in both face-to-face and remote teaching situations. It promotes off-campus study and collaboration as well as communication among students, their instructors, and specialists in the concerned scientific field. In France, many initiatives are currently underway to develop suitable tools and approaches for teaching information literacy, both in the schools and at the university level. After presenting some of the concepts used in information literacy education (objectives, teaching methods, competency standards, etc.), we describe the architecture of the IPinfo system and its capabilities. Then we report a field study of an information literacy course that relies on the use of IPinfo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]