The database Profil has been set up tooffer readers studying modern literarymanuscripts a reference tool to identifywatermarked papers. In the study of writers'drafts as in artists' sketches, the differentkinds of papers used provide valuableinformation on the genesis of a work of art andwatermarks, when they exist, are the bestvisible hint allowing us to identify paper. Amultimedia database, with digitized images moreprecise than usual traced design, seems to beappropriate to register, visualize, and comparemodern watermarked papers. Besides itsusefulness for specialists, such a databasebearing on modern manuscripts should also beconceived in a didactic perspective, as it isoriented towards literary scholars who are notparticularly familiar with the history of modern paper. In this paper we present the database Profilwhich includes a set of digitized images from acollection of betagraphies made by thereproduction service of the National FrenchLibrary. Then we explain problems of databasenormalization when human sciences areinvolved.