BNF Classes. The educational site of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Last updated on 18 April 2020

The BNF is one of its prestigious institutions so huge and imposing that one does not dare to venture there for fear of getting lost. This is a mistake. Proof with BNF Classes, the educational portal of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which would benefit from being known by all education professionals, families and young people themselves.

If you have not yet ranked it among your favorites, I invite you to discover it. Like many other resources proposed by the BNF, such as RetroNews that I had the opportunity to present here, Classes is a gateway to a range of remarkable educational materials. The health crisis offers a good opportunity to discover or re-discover this site full of educational files and editorialized documentary resources gathered by the BNF teams accessible remotely.

BNF Classes. A portal and search engine to explore the library's educational resources

The site presents itself as a real information portal with sections and folders on the front page as well as the main useful links for education professionals. For example, you have access to Éduthèque, the service reserved for teachers designed by the Ministry of National Education and Youth in partnership with many public institutions, but also to the main public sites of the BNF (exhibitions, editions, Gallica, children, etc.).

On this front door, you mostly have access to a powerful search engine that would benefit from being put forward more. It has the merit of allowing an integral search in this cave of Ali Baba. You can search all resources or only images.

A dive into the major exhibitions and news of the BNF

BNF Classes also offers many other entry points that are worth a look. There is not much to throw away. You will find videos and lectures by leading specialists on the themes covered by the recent exhibitions of the BNF. Also on the menu are more than 150 ePubs selected by national education from Gallica to download with confidence on your e-readers or nearly a hundred complete pedagogical files.

As for the news featured on the portal, two creations by the BNF, which alone deserve a visit. First of all BDnF a great tool that I have already said all the good that I thought it would be and that makes it possible to create real comics. You will be able to develop a scenario, choose characters and sets, define a format, play with bubbles and typography, import, divert images and tap into the thousands of images available on Gallica …Formidable.

Also take a look at the Royaune d’Istyald, a real immersive video game put online by the library during the major exhibition devoted a few months ago to ‘Fantasy’.

In the end, BNF Classes is a very rich portal that is worth knowing and deserves a place in your digital resource kit.

Link: BNF Classes