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New plans by Google Inc. to build the first comprehensive digital library online, dubbed "Google Scholar", has the French engaging in their favorite past time- America Hating. The antagonist's case is that the profit based American company would end up creating an online library that would mainly focus on the U.S. literary legacy and therefore overlook the European contributions to the world of literature. No less than six European leaders have already caught the fear and are jointly proposing to build their own "New International Version" to counter the Google project. Mirroring the instantaneous bitching of your grandma, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Hungary are all appealing to the European Union. Several more countries are expected to join the witch hunt as well. Announced earlier this year, the project involves scanning millions of books from the libraries of four of the world's largest universities- Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, as well as works found in the New York Public Library. The process of scanning and transferring the books online will take several years to complete. "I think this is a danger", was the response given by Jean-Noel Jeanneney, president of the French National Library and author of the recently published, "When Google Challenges Europe." Google has responded by suggesting to work with libraries all over the world so that even more books can be included in its "Google Scholar" search engine index. Susan Wojcicki, director of product development said, "We are supportive of all digitization efforts because we believe everyone benefits when more information is available online.The Europeans are treating the situation with all the paranoia of a quiet 1960's small town, bracing for an invasion of 20,000 Hells Angels. Only in their minds, they are being attacked with a threat of knowledge spreading, rather than chain whips. With the implications of Guttenberg's printing press, Google's presupposed project could completely reshape the modern world as we know it. But rather than embracing the concept and peacefully working towards a mutual resolution, the Europeans responded by launching a series of instantaneous paranoia based attacks. Right on guys… |