Suzanne Honoré (1909-2000) was a French librarian, archivist and historian for decades at the

National Library of France National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

. She was also known as Suzanne Duvergé. She was conferred with honorific awards in recognition of her input to librarianship. These awards were: Commander of the

Order of Academic Palms Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

Officer of the Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1958, 1960, and 1976 respectively.

Biography

Honoré was born July 13, 1909, in

Oloron-Sainte-Marie Oloron-Sainte-Marie (; ; ) is a commune in the southwestern French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. History The town was founded by the Romans in the 1st century, then known as ''Illoronensium''. Situated on the Roman way between the ...

(Pyrénées-Atlantiques) as Suzanne Duvergé, and died on March 17, 2000, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. She was married to a sculptor, Pierre-Henri-Félix Honoré. She had three children.

Education

Honoré obtained a degree in history and geography in 1928. She enrolled in the

École Nationale des chartes The École Nationale des Chartes (; ) is a French ''grande école'' and a constituent college of Université PSL, specialising in the auxiliary sciences of history, historical sciences. It was founded in 1821, and was located initially at the A ...

and graduated in 1932 as an archivist

palaeographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dati ...

Career

In 1936, Honoré joined the National Library of France as a volunteer, then in 1943 she was fully employed as a staff of the National Library of France. She eventually became a titular librarian. Honoré had much knowledge of the National Library and cataloging, which gave her the opportunity to create the first community star ever to appear in the catalog “

Schneider et Cie Schneider et Compagnie, also known as Schneider-Creusot for its birthplace in the French town of Le Creusot, was a historic iron and steel-mill company which became a major arms manufacturer. In the 1960s, it was taken over by the Belgian Empain ...

”. Honoré for many years was in charge of a course on printed archives at the internship international archives organized by the Archives Directorate of France. She was also appointed chief curator in 1963 and was mandated to head the international exchange department. She created the first authority file in France, which was for stars of private communities. From 1967 to 1979, Honoré was director of the entries department of the National Library of France. However, in 1971, she was appointed member of the brand new Commission for the coordination of administrative documentation created under the Prime Minister, and she worked within the publications committee of this commission. While in this position, she started the computerization of the Bibliography of France. Honoré understood the importance of shared cataloging, which made her involved with the curator at the University Library of Grenoble, Marc Chauveine on the Machine Readable Cataloging (MARC) formats. Honoré's involvement gave birth to the first French machine readable catalog, then to Intermarc and Unimarc. After working extensively at the National Library of France, she retired in 1978.

Recognition

Due to Honoré's impact on librarianship, she was recognized and conferred with honorific awards. *Commandeur of the

Ordre des Palmes Académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

in 1958 *

in 1960 *

in 1976

References

External links

* * https://books.google.com/books?id=10rgjNvOV8oC&q=suzanne+honore+french+librarian * https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb121928992 * https://d-nb.info/gnd/1100315977 {{DEFAULTSORT:Honoré, Suzanne People from Oloron-Sainte-Marie École Nationale des Chartes alumni 1909 births 2000 deaths French librarians French women librarians Commandeurs of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Recipients of the Ordre national du Mérite Knights of the Legion of Honour Officers of the Legion of Honour French archivists 20th-century French historians