To mark the end of his 2025–2026 amU Fellow residency, Maxime Nicolas, physicist, is organising an afternoon event focusing on the history of cartography and the movement of documents within Marseille’s libraries. On the programme: talks, an escape game and an exploration of the Alcazar’s cartographic collections!
Caption: Left: map of Marseille city centre (Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF). Right: artificial relief map based on data relating to loans in 2025 from all libraries in Marseille (copyright: Maxime Nicolas).
A meet-up focusing on library science, fluid mechanics and cartography
This thoroughly interdisciplinary event offers an original perspective on the dissemination of culture through a scientific analysis of the borrowing records from libraries across the city of Marseille. Using a method that geolocates borrowers’ addresses, followed by a mathematical process, patterns of cultural dissemination reveal a new topography of the city based on the origin of the items borrowed from the nine libraries in the network. The presentation in the form of a cartographic atlas challenges the way databases are typically represented and echoes both ancient and modern maps archived in the Alcazar’s storerooms.
The closing lecture (6.00 pm) will be preceded by a short talk (2.00 pm) by a cartographer from the Institut de l’Information Géographique et Forestière (IGN), who will present a history of cartography and explore the Alcazar’s rich cartographic collections, followed by an escape game in the library (2.45 pm). Participants will have the chance to explore the library and view rare documents.
Programme
- 2.00 pm: a short talk by François Virevialle (IGN) on the history of cartography and the Alcazar’s cartographic collections.
- 2.45 pm: escape game organised by the Alcazar team.
- 6.00 pm–7.30 pm: talk entitled ‘BookFlux: document flows in Marseille’s libraries’, by Maxime Nicolas. A presentation of the research project carried out at Iméra, open to all.
- 8.30 pm: the final event at a venue revealed through a riddle at the end of the conference.
This event is co-organised by Iméra (Aix Marseille Université), the Alcazar Library and the IGN.
Practical information
- Date: Wednesday, September 30th, 2026, from 2.00 pm to 7.30 pm
- Venue: Bibliothèque l’Alcazar, 58 Cours Belsunce, 13001 Marseille
- Admission is free.
- Target audience: Library users and staff, researchers, students of geography and spatial planning, cartographers and map enthusiasts, and anyone with an interest in interdisciplinarity and citizen science.
- Language: this event will be held entirely in French.
