With some trepidation, I am asking for help from List Members, or at any
rate advice on how I might proceed. I hope this will not be considered out
of order, but I am getting desperate.
I am handicapped by being an Independent Scholar, and while I am a member of
the University of London Institute of Historical Research, I have no access
to academic inter-library loans facilities. I am thus dependent on the local
public library.
Eighteen months ago I applied for a French doctoral thesis which it is
essential that I read. After a year I was informed that the book was
unavailable. (When I trained as a librarian in the 1960s I was taught to say
that if a book was published it was obtainable on ILL anywhere, given time
...) I then wrote to the Librarian of the French University to check if the
book actually existed and if my citation was correct. It does. It was.
However, the Librarian (quite properly) would not lend it to me personally
but only through the international Inter Library Loan system. I took full
documentation, plus the letters with translation back to my public library
and said "Please try again." Six months has passed. Zilch. I do not know if
the problem is with the British Library or with the Bibl. Nat.....
Probably I am being unreasonably impatient, but I have critical need to read
that thesis. Is there any List Member, domiciled in Paris or off to Paris
for a study session who could help me ? My personal circumstances preclude a
trip to Paris myself at the moment.
This is the book: It is a thesis for which a doctorate was awarded in July
1973 by the Centre d'Histoire du Droit . &c, Université Panthéon-Assas Paris
II. HUBERT GUILLOTEL: Les actes des ducs de Bretagne (AD 944-1148)
A letter written to the author (in English ...) in 1999 received no
response.
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Brenda M. Cook
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