FYI France: EXTRA -- BNdeFrance catalogue via W3 and telnet

Per some email just received and a quick test, telnet to
193.50.133.201  or to  opale02.bnf.fr , login  opale (or clicking in
through  http://www.bnf.fr , if you have a telnet client), now reaches:

    Bonjour,
                Bienvenue sur le catalogue BN-OPALE
                de la Bibliotheque nationale de France.

and then you get,

    Bienvenue sur le catalogue informatise de la Bibliotheque Nationale
                         Base BN-OPALE

    Le catalogue est ouvert  du lundi au vendredi de 09h00 a 19h30
                                     et le samedi de 09h00 a 17h30.

(Note: the catalogue appears to function even outside these hours -- I
am using it now at 9pm on a Sunday, Paris time.)

    Il contenait au 1er Juillet 1995 plus de 1 900 000 notices, comprenant :
 	- tous les livres francais et etrangers depuis 1970,
 	- tous les periodiques francais apparus depuis 1974,
 	- tous les periodiques etrangers depuis 1965,
 	- les microformes etablies par le Centre de Sable.

    Il s'accroit d'environ 6 000 notices par mois.

XXX

I did a search -- found a book -- it works.

I have had some difficulties, myself, in getting in: hung sessions,
mostly, waiting for the "transaction en cours" sign to go away. Idle
speculation suggests that this will be a very popular service, and that
they may have quite a few "port" and other capacity problems during its
initial stages, which perhaps accounted for my hung sessions. But this
weekend I have been able to log in with enough regularity to be able to
recommend the service now to others.

The Bibliothe`que Nationale de France W3 homepage -- http://www.bnf.fr
-- also looks very promising and well worth a visit, even if you don't
have the telnet client necessary for using it to get to BN-OPALE.

BN-OPALE used in situ at the BN is an excellent service. Allowing for
a few quirks in the mapping of BN terminal keys to foreign personal
computers -- one help message directs you to "the red key" to execute a
particular command -- the telnet version of BN-OPALE also promises to
be an excellent service, a great resource to the international research
community. Fe'licitations to all involved at the Rue Richelieu and
elsewhere.

XXX

FYIFrance e - newsletter        ISSN 1071 - 5916

      *
      |           published since 1992 as a small - scale, personal,
      |           experiment, in the creation of large - scale
      |           "information overload", by Jack Kessler. Any material
     / \          written by me which appears in FYIFrance may be
    -----         copied and used by anyone for any good purpose, so
   //   \\        long as, a) they give me credit and show my e - mail
  ---------       address and, b) it isn't going to make them money: if
 //       \\      if it is going to make them money, they must get my
                  permission in advance, and share some of the money
which they get with me. Use of material written by others requires
their permission. FYIFrance archives may be reached online at
http://infolib.berkeley.edu , or via gopher to infolib.berkeley.edu 72
or  gopher.well.sf.ca.us  or  gopher.univ-rennes1.fr (BIBLIO-FR
econference archive), or via telnet to  a.cni.org  , login  brsuser
(PACS / PACS-L e - conference archive). Suggestions, reactions,
criticisms, praise, and poison - pen letters all will be gratefully
received at  kessler@well.sf.ca.us .

XXX

end