Confessions of a Mad Librarian

There's an article at the Chronicle of Higher Ed about the recent essay by Jean-No�l Jeanneney, president of the National Library of France, about the Google digitizations projects [the non-subscriber, one-week link].

In an essay published in January in Le Monde, Jean-No�l Jeanneney, a prominent French historian and president of the national library, argued that the Google project would inevitably be biased in favor of English-language and "Anglo-Saxon" publications.

"The libraries that are going to be involved in this enterprise are certainly generously open to the civilization and works of other countries," he wrote. "It does not matter: The criteria of choice will be powerfully marked ... by the view of Anglo-Saxons, with its specific coloring with regard to the diversity of civilizations."

Mr. Jeanneney called on European countries to build their own large-scale digital library in response, in what could become an international e-book arms race.

Karen Schneider and Mary Minow have commented on Jeanneney's reaction.