The recent announcement that Google will digitize the holdings of several major libraries sent shock waves through the book industry and academe. Google presented this digital repository as a first step towards a long-dreamed-of universal library, but skeptics were quick to raise a number of concerns about the potential for copyright infringement and unanticipated effects on the business of research and publishing. Jean-Noël Jeanneney, president of France’s Bibliothèque Nationale, here takes aim at what he sees as a far more troubling aspect of Google’s Library Project: its potential to misrepresent—and even damage—the world’s cultural heritage. In this impassioned work, Jeanneney argues that Google’s unsystematic digitization of books from a few partner libraries and its reliance on works written mostly in English constitute acts of selection that can only extend the dominance of American culture abroad. This danger is made evident by a Google book search the author discusses here—one run on Hugo, Cervantes, Dante, and Goethe that resulted in just one non-English edition, and a German translation of Hugo at that. An archive that can so easily slight the masters of European literature—and whose development is driven by commercial interests—cannot provide the foundation for a universal library. As a leading librarian, Jeanneney remains enthusiastic about the archival potential of the Web. But he argues that the short-term thinking characterized by Google’s digital repository must be countered by long-term planning on the part of cultural and governmental institutions worldwide—a serious effort to create a truly comprehensive library, one based on the politics of inclusion and multiculturalism.

Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge: A View from Europe

Computers & Technology

Jeanneney, Jean-Noël

Computer Science

University of Chicago Press

Web Development & Design

"Le ""Monde"" de Beuve-Méry"

Julliard, Jacques

SEUIL

Vers un pays lointain: Dialogues sur l'Antiquité

Sartre, Maurice

Flammarion

Correspondance, 1858-1929

History

Clémenceau, Georges

Brodziak, Sylvie

Military

BOUQUINS

Les archives du cinéma et de la télévision, numéro 97

Capitaine de Saint-Phalle

Roger, P.

Serceau, Michel

CORLET

L'Un De Nous Deux. (I Venticinque) (French Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

PORTAPAROLE

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jeanneney, Jean-Noël. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jeanneney, Jean-Noël