Offering documentation of excellence
National recognition : CollEx
A “scientific interest group” (GIS) known as CollEx-Persée was set up in France to renew the services available to the world of research and academic and technical information.
In the spring of 2017, the University of Lille was selected as an “associate member” of CollEx-Persée in the “Anglophone” section (United Kingdom and Ireland) and for “engineering and digital science”.
Furthermore, seven of the University of Lille’s collections are recognised to be of national interest and were awarded the "CollEx" label for a (renewable) duration of five years (2018–2022).
The libraries take part in various projects at a national level (thematic mapping of collections, collaborative conservation plans for periodicals, digitisation projects) with the aim of supporting the development of openly available services for the entire national research community in a particular field of knowledge.
An exceptional heritage collection
As well as the collection of the Société Géologique du Nord, the libraries boast extensive heritage collections with some 13,000 items, dating from the 12th century to the early 19th century. These are comprised of university collections formed during the 19th century from items confiscated during the revolutionary period, subsequently built up with donations such as that of bibliophile Edmond Agache. The extreme rarity of some items makes them invaluable study materials, as in the case of the TALIE research project (traditions of antiquity in Lille and the Euroregion), initiated in 2015.