Site version history

December 2025 version

The main new feature in this version is a page for viewing data on musical works and composers..

September 2025 version

The main new features in this version are:

  • A “View the work's tree structure” section on work pages with subdivisions, such as La comédie humaine : this section allows you to navigate between the different levels of the work.
  • redirecting classic ARKs (ark:/12148/...) to modern ARKs without a slash (ark:12148/...).

December 2024 version

The main new features in this version are:

  • addition of links to the FranceArchives portal: example

October 2024 version

This version follows an ergonomic and graphic redesign of the site.

The main new features in this version are:

  • an editorialized home page
  • adding facets and search filters to index pages
  • the option of a mosaic display to view thumbnails of digitized works and cover thumbnails
  • a new collaborations section on the authors' pages
  • using the ARK identifier as the page URL whenever possible

March 2021 version

This version incorporates filters and facets into the website pages to identify, in particular, editions of a work in a specific language.

Two new sections have been added, one dedicated to adaptations of an author's works, the other to themes associated with the author.

Finally, for a corpus of major literary works, a new service (“Data recommends”) highlights manually selected digitized works in Gallica.

July 2020 version

The July 2020 version includes the loading of one million works calculated with RobotDonnées.

RobotDonnées is a suite of algorithms that enable the semi-automated generation of pages of works from successive editions listed in the BnF's general catalog. The data loaded in 2020 allows us to evaluate the relevance of this experimental process.

April 2019 version: a new interface for data.bnf.fr

The April 2019 version offers a new display for author, work, theme, periodical, show, and date pages.

This redesign aims to bring together more systematically on each page all the information available for each type of resource, thus offering a more concise overview of the content offered by the application as well as possible links to more comprehensive document databases.

This version offers:

  • a display by expandable subsections, in which an interactive summary allows you to navigate dynamically
  • easy access to the most recent resources related to an entity, as well as the accompanying digitized version, where applicable
  • A single page containing all the information relating to a place, which was previously scattered across two different pages, one corresponding to thematic entities (Rameau record) and the other corresponding to place entities proper (geographical record of maps and plans). You can view an example of these new location pages.

June 2016 version: publication of all BnF quality data

The June 2016 version includes approximately 2 million authors (individuals and organizations). It thus includes all authors who published in 2015. Data.bnf.fr therefore includes:

  • 2 million people and organizations
  • all themes (RAMEAU notices)
  • periodicals, performances, and locations described at the BnF.

This version also offers:

  • links to Wikidata, Wikipedia's database, for example from the page of Victor Hugo
  • improved interface display, in particular by grouping information about performances behind the corresponding work pages, where they exist.

April 2015 version

The April 2015 version lists approximately 900,000 authors (individuals and organizations). It includes all organizations and authors who published in 2014. Data.bnf.fr thus comprises:

  • 890,000 people and organizations
  • all themes (RAMEAU notices)
  • periodicals, performances, and locations described at the BnF.

This version also offers:

  • 17,500 links between geographic records and corresponding RAMEAU records ;
  • An improvement to the RDF data query interface on data.bnf.fr: Sparql console. This console provides examples of queries for data users.

November 2014 version: improved geographic data

The November 2014 version includes more than 600,000 authors and incorporates links to the Virtual Exhibitions of the BnF.

New data is provided in RDF :

  • geographic data linked to INSEE and Geonames reference systems ;
  • alignments between RAMEAU subject reference systems and geographic data, via the skos:closeMatch property (example: La Rochelle);
  • a GeoJSON export for location pages ;
  • links to the BnF's virtual exhibitions and multimedia resources (example: Gustave Doré).

September 2014 version: opening of a SPARQL endpoint

In September 2014, the BnF launched a SPARQL endpoint. This allows users to query RDF data from data.bnf.fr. Sample queries are available to help users familiarize themselves with the query process.
SPARQL endpoint interface for data.bnf.fr.

New information available in RDF: the mention “died for France” (bnf-onto:mortPourLaFrance) for an author

.

July 2014 version: new links to the BnF databases

Since July 2014, data.bnf.fr has included:

  • 400,000 authors and related documents ;
  • websites collected by the BnF as part of the legal deposit of the Internet, among documents relating to a given topic. For example, the page Literaturee ;
  • additional information from BnF archives and manuscripts, such as author biographies, in the “Sources and references” section. For example, on the page for Michel Guy ;
  • Simplified data export in JSON and GeoJSON formats is provided for all theme and location pages. These exports are in addition to those already available for author pages (individuals and organizations) and works.

January 2014 version

Data.bnf.fr offers:

  • pages relating to performances (e.g., Antigone, choreography by Carolyn Carlson) ;
  • pages on places, particularly the birth and death places of authors (e.g., Saint-Malo), including links to resources from the Maps and Plans Department;
  • links to the ISNI international identifier database for authors.

June 2013 version

As of June 2013, data.bnf.fr has added a workshop where timelines, maps, and image galleries allow users to experiment with new ways of browsing (e.g., Théophile Gautier). data.bnf.fr also links to:

  • a selection of bookmarks from the BnF;
  • a selection of bibliographies found in the reading rooms of the BnF

July 2012 version

It contains new data:

  • 160,000 themes from the Rameau subject authority database: new theme pages are created and data from the RAMEAU database is presented according to semantic web standards (RDF).
  • access to digitized documents related to authors
  • new categories of authors: musicians (e.g., Jules Massenet), engravers (e.g., Jean-Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine), etc.;

It features the following new functionalities:

  • a search engine with autocomplete on the site
  • dThe “dates” pages generated by automatic compilation when clicking on an author or work reference date Example: authors born, works created, completed, or published in 1789
  • access to the main authors related to an author
  • displaying multiple volumes available in Gallica

April 2012 version

This version offers more than 200,000 pages and references more than 2 million documents. Taking into account comments made by users, this version offers:/p>

  • managing long lists for works and authors ;
  • highlighting the most representative documents on the author pages, prioritizing digitized documents, then documents at the top of the garden, in particular;
  • A complete footer with various tools: reporting, sending, permalink, recovery ;

December 2011 version

Launched in July 2011 in its initial version, data.bnf.fr contains more than 35,000 pages on authors and works. These pages bring together more than 700,000 references from the BnF catalogs (general catalog, archives, and manuscripts) and more than 50,000 links to Gallica.
The new version also includes the following features:

  • for each edition of a work, links to contributors (illustrators, translators, etc.); for example, the page dedicated to Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque reveals that Charles Baudelaire was the translator;
  • images (thumbnails) relating to authors and works that link to Gallica, such as this series of photos of André Malraux by Roger Pic ;
  • links to all other documentary resources related to a work or author (right-hand column), such as the 124 documents about Titian.