Friday, April 29, 2005

Digitising libraries Euro style

There are two stories which seem to have been triggered by Google's plans to digitise major academic libraries.

The first from an Aussie paper, the Sydney Morning Herald (which unfortuantely requires registration) says that 19 European libraries have decided to collaborate to put some of their contents on the Web.

The second, from SV.COM, says 6 EU leaders have proposed a European digital library. The latter effort is probably at teh behest of French President Jacques Chirac, who was worried that Google's project was just another form of US imperialism being visited upon world culture.

As I said when I first heard his reaction to the Google project, even if he doesn't understand what's going on, it does wonders for publicising the need for open access.

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