Myriem Foncin

Foncin joined the Maps and Plans section of the BnF Printed Materials Department in June 1920 as a trainee librarian, hired on the "warm recommendation" of her father's friend and eminent historian of cartography, Lucien Gallois.

[1][2] She quickly made her mark by revitalizing the modern collections despite her colleague Charles Du Bus, who was more interested in art history and ancient cartography.

[1] From 1946 to 1954, she worked with the chief architect Michel Roux-Spitz on a project to renovate and expand the space in the Hôtel Tubeuf that was dedicated to cartographic collections.

In June 1954, the Department of Maps and Plans reopened in its new location in the Richelieu complex, after its collections had been divided between the Institut de Géographie and the Salle Mortreuil of the BnF since 1938.

With Marcel Destombes and Monique de La Roncière, she wrote the Catalogue of Nautical Charts on vellum preserved in the Department of Maps and Plans (1963).

In 1938, Foncin formed an informal group of popular educators, publishers and professional librarians, who worked together on criteria for the selection of books for mass libraries.