Arabesques n°100

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Arabesques Hundredth, and it's already tomorrow

January-February-March 2021

With this special issue, the editorial board of Arabesques wanted to offer its readers a look in the rear-view mirror, which may seem dizzying given that the changes in our profession, in our institutional environment, and even in the very meaning of our missions as librarians, have been marked by the advent of the Internet and digital technology.

In 1920, in an aphorism with prophetic overtones, Antonin Artaud warned: "a society that turns science into a dust of sciences is a society that degenerates". At the dawn of this 'post-COVID-19' year, it seems that our profession is collectively ready to fight against this risk of knowledge fragmentation. Indeed, as some of the prestigious contributors to this issue of Arabesques point out, in the age of 'all-digital', the quality, reliability and openness of the metadata of scientific publications are the indispensable ingredients for the establishment of a truly open science, capable of meeting the challenges - both current and future - of scientific research. This will strengthen the sense of mission of our great documentary network on a daily basis.

We would like to thank the authors for the composite and fascinating portrait of our profession that they offer us. To illustrate this issue, we wanted to introduce the colourful and poetic palette of Odra Noel, a painter at the crossroads of Art and Science, whose pictorial work, inspired by scientific observations at the cellular level, offers a magnified version of Life in all its dimensions. With this ode to Life, the editorial board of Arabesques wishes you all the best for 2021.