This article aims to question the semiotic and political stakes of “digital libraries.” To do so, it analyzes a specific example: Gallica and its white-label initiative. From a semio-discursive approach, it highlights the way in which this object is part of a history of forms while semiotizing representations of documentation. Between logics of accessibility and openness, the “digital library” updates previous documentary logics while updating itself through the imaginary associated with the digital. Between mediation and mediatization, the Gallica “digital library,” by its diversification into white-labeling, is evidence of an industrialization of the forms of documentation and leads to an interrogation of the relationship between mediation and communication.
- digital library
- Gallica
- semiotics
- documentation
- computerized media