La Bibliothèque municipale di Marsiglia.

The essay is meant to describe and explain meanings and roles of the Municipal Library of Marseille from several points of view: first of all, the urbanistic and social one, as the library has a main role in the municipal project intended to rivitalize the neighbourhood called Vieux Port; secondly, the viewpoint of the national policy on libraries, as this library is one of the twelve Bibliotheques Municipales Vocation Regionale built over the last years and stands on the axis Montpellier-Marseille-Nice; last, the viewpoint of the functional organization related to services and collections. This case study is an opportunity to define the role of the public library as an urban and social space on a methodological and internal level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]