Google “library” sparks French warcry

Reuters says France’s national library has raised a “warcry” over plans by Google to put books from some of the world’s great libraries on the Internet and wants to ensure the project does not lead a domination of American ideas.
Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who heads France’s national library and is a noted historian, says Google’s choice of works is likely to favour Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language.

February 21, 2005 by Blake Uncategorized 6

GregS* says:

February 21, 2005 at 9:42 pm

Not getting it
Wouldn’t it be better to appeal to some European based company instead of the EU? Isn’t there some Google-wannabe who might like the oppurtunity to make its mark? This is a good example of where competition and capitalism combine to benefit everybody.

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kylere says:

February 22, 2005 at 1:33 am

Hmm
They seem to want entitlement and protection rather than just offering to provide the data for Google to include anything they desire in French. I am sure Google would be glad to include French data.

Languages change over time, and some fade from use, the recent in terms of history need to protect such things is, IMHO, silly. Let me state this more completely, hmm. Okay, I see a need to protect copies of everything originally done in French, in French, as well as the ability to have a manual to learn french preserved, but insisting it be kept alive as a language by legal decision is what I think is silly. Barring a dramatic cultural, social, financial or environment change the world will continue moving towards on language, and it is not going to be french, if it is not english, I am betting on Chinese.

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kylere says:

February 22, 2005 at 1:34 am

Re:Hmm
That should be ONE language, silly sticking E key.

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pamplemousse says:

February 22, 2005 at 4:16 am

Obviously a funding ploy
The BN already has a digitisation project in place — and a lot of their images are used, with permission, at Project Gutenberg. So I suspect that what this really is, is a plea for more funding from the EU to boost their already-underway project.

Nothing wrong with that, and the more digitization the better for all.

It’s a pity he chose to push the American Cultural Imperialism line, but … if that’s what you have to do to get money, so be it. Let’s not take it personally. (Easy for me to say, since I’m a Brit living in Australia!)

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opaqueentity says:

February 22, 2005 at 4:25 pm

So?
If an American company is going to only copy anglo-saxon literature so what? That’s their choice.
Not that I think they will do but if the French are so het up about it then why don’t they start digitising their own cultural identity and then make that available? At least he has the right idea by trying to get the material on the Internet but why assume that some company in the US is going to go their job for them?

Not as if everything is going to be freely available anyway is it.

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Lee Hadden says:

February 22, 2005 at 7:35 pm

French Language Imperialism
When I was a librarian in Korea twenty years ago, I was bored at a reception by an intoxicated French charge’ from the Embassey who insisted (in English) that French was truly the international langauge, and anyone who traveled had best learn to speak French perfectly. Everywhere you went on the globe, he said, people would speak French as the langauge of international travel. It was welcome everywhere on earth as the primary language of culture and science.
Smiling politely at him, I said in my best school boy French, “Mais, su^r la lune, on parle Anglais.” (But on the moon, one speaks English).
He was gobstopped, which was the first time I have ever seen a Frenchman at a loss for words. I had out-imperialised him on the language front, and he was unused to the experience.

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