Who knows documentation? Rediscovering the discipline through the work of Suzanne Briet

Abstract

In recent years there has been a renewed reflection on the role and functions of documentation, also through a comparison with library science and bibliography. Some scholars, such as Paul Otlet, who promoted the development of the discipline between the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, have been reconsidered. The aim of the paper is to offer some reflections on the rediscovery of the work of the French librarian Suzanne Briet (1894-1989), by examining the volume Suzanne Briet nostra contemporanea. Con la prima traduzione italiana di Qu’est-ce que la documentation? (1951) (Mimesis, 2022), edited by Paola Castellucci and Sara Mori. The book is divided into three sections: the first, by Castellucci, is entitled Suzanne Briet, Sleeping Beauty; the second consists of the Italian translation of what can be considered the French librarian’s ‘spiritual legacy’ Qu’est-ce que la documentation?; the third and final section contains the chapter Madame Documentation by Sara Mori. Through a reconstruction of the life of Suzanne Briet and an analysis of her work and the historical and cultural context in which her thought developed, the two authors invite us to reflect on the role of documentation and the contribution that, through the insights of the French librarian, it can offer to contemporary society.