Google book plan angers the French

A PLAN by Google to put books from some of the world's great libraries online has angered the French.

California-based Google Inc said last December it would scan millions of books and periodicals into its popular search engine over the next few years.

But, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who heads France's national library feels that such a move will lead to a domination of American ideas over other cultures. The noted historian is fuming that Google's choice of works is likely to favour Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language.

Of course he doesn't know this for certain, but he wants the European Union to make sure that writers like Honoré de Balzac, Simone de Beauvoir, Georges Bernanos, Albert Camus, Jean Cocteau, Colette, Cyrano de Bergerac, Alexandre Dumas, Marguerite Duras, Gustave Flaubert, Anatole France, André Gide, Heloise, Victor Hugo, Molière, Alfred de Musset, Anais Nin, Blaise Pascal, Marcel Proust, Jean Racine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, George Sand, Jean-Paul Sartre, Madame de Stael, Stendhal, Voltaire, and Simone Weil continue to see the light of day.

Jeanneney denied that he despised English speaking rosbif. He said that in the simple act of making a choice, Google imposes a certain view of things which will be Anglo-Saxon in its views.

He claimed that he wanted a "multi-polar view of the world" in the 21st century. However most of the examples he cited to hacks at Le Monde were more of a demand to see things presented in a French way.

For example, Jeanneney said he didn't want to see the US version of the French Revolution; he wanted to see a version that was "ours".

Jeanneney said he was not anti-American, and that he wanted better relations between Europe and the United States. However, he didn't say what he thought of the inventors of English, those folk that live on the little island next door.

Le Figaro claimed that the president of the National Library of France was sounding a warcry. "He is seeking a French and European crusade," the hacks enthused.

However, we not sure that the EU charter specifies that it has to crusade to peddle French culture to the rest of the world and doubt it will listen. Unless the Germans agree of course.

You can read a Reuters version of the story, here. µ