Paul Boudet (librarian)

Course

Although its thesis of the National school of the charters (1914) carries on the Chapter of Saint-Dié, to Lorraine, of the origins at the 16th century , Paul Boudet makes all his career in Indo-China.

With leaving the School of the charters (1914), it is named with the hospital files of Dijon then to the library of Rouen. It arrives at Hanoi in March 1917, like boarder of the French École of the Far East, operations manager to classify files. He however gives up this statute as of the end of 1917 in order to create, on a proposal from the governor Albert Sarraut a service of files and library. He remains at this station until in 1947, the day before his death.

Paul Boudet then devotes himself to a considerable work in order to set up and to make function a service under difficult conditions. He starts by recruiting local executives then obtains the arrival of four Chartiste S, framing especially trained archivists and Indochinese librarians. In 1927, Boudet organizes an annual course of training of secretary-archivists and librarians.

It builds and modernizes buildings intended to accommodate these new services. It installs the new central Library of Indo-China with Hanoi, in the old palate of the viceroy of the Tonkin, which it increases and modernizes. It there assistant a lending library so that library of research (very much used by the local students) and library of public reading (including for the children, with possibility of loan in residence) are answered. It creates even a system of mobile library which furrows Cochinchine from Saigon.

It also builds libraries in the two other provinces of Cochinchine (Saigon) and of the Kampuchea (Phnom-Penh). The files are organized same manner with deposits in the three main cities of Indo-China. Instead of acclimatizing in Indo-China of the French practices, it tries to adapt to the climate and the local conditions. The buildings are designed in order to facilitate the natural circulation of the air, not to create microclimate. The shelves are especially carried out in a very hard wood, which prevents that insects do not come to place themselves there and deteriorate works and documents.

To Hanoi, to Saigon and Phnom-Penh, a department head directs the file-libraries unit, under the authority of Paul Boudet. Simone de Saint-Exupéry thus directs the center of Hanoi of 1931 to 1955. In 1939, Boudet creates a fourth center, with Hué, entrusted to Ngo Ding Nhu.

Paul Boudet also creates the Registration of copyright for the books published in Indo-China. He writes catalogs and deals with the Bibliographie of Indo-China , thus contributing to facilitate the access to the preserved works. Parallel to his activity of administrator, Paul Boudet devotes himself to research on Indochinese civilizations. He is professor of history and geography at the School of right and pedagogy of Hanoï then of history of Annam to the Faculty of Law (1929-1945) and becomes a directing time of the review Extreme-Asia . He directs the Company of geography of Hanoi and is the author of many scientific articles. Lastly, it is one of the first to be been interested in the local arts and crafts of paper, studying the plants used and encouraging the production of the local craftsmen.

Works

Bibliography of French Indo-China, 1913-1926, 1927-1929, 1930,1931-1935 , Hanoi, 1929-1943 (with R. Bourgeois)
historical Iconography of French Indo-China , Paris, G. van Oest, 1931. (with A. Masson),
Manual of the archivist: instructions for the organization and the classification of the Files of Indo-China, Hanoi: Direction of the Files and the libraries , 1934

Sources

Simone de Saint-Exupéry, “Paul Boudet (1889-1948)” in BSEI , n° 23/3-4, 1948, p. 135-138.
DBF, coll 1255-1256

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