RE: Beyond Google Print: Culture Wars or The French are coming!

["Erwin, Patricia J." <erwin.patricia@mayo.edu>]

I have a vague recollection of a notice a year ago (perhaps longer)
announcing that the French government had begun a project to digitize the
collections in the national library. I don't recall seeing anything since
then.

Patricia J. Erwin aka "Pat"
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Libraries
200 First Street SW
Rochester MN 55905 
507.284.4952
erwin.patricia@mayo.edu

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 5:55 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu; liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Beyond Google Print: Culture Wars or The French are coming!

Some of the quotations in the Times article (I retain one below)  
indicate that their reporter is not to blame for all the chauvanism. I
also do not recall that Google proposed to digitise only English-language
material. I do recall it is presently limited to US libraries, and not
those of the many other English speaking countries--such as England. I
hope Stevan is not making the mistake of confusing English language
civilization with that of the US alone,

But of course Stevan is correct that such plans are to be encouraged; I do
not think the Times intended to disparage them.  It is precisely the
facilities of such technical developments that permit the preservation of
the full cultrual heritage, and not just selected materia--even if it is
national pride that brings about the funding.

The French will benefit from the digitisation of US libraries as much as
the reverse. Perhaps it may even encourage the monolingual in both
countries to become bilingual, after the example of Canadians.  I hope it
will not encourage them to develop another language entirely, as in
Stevan's final paragraph.

Dr. David Goodman
Associate Professor 
Palmer School of Library and Information Science 
Long Island University 
dgoodman@liu.edu