New European Digitization Plan

Collaboration among 19 countries on plan to rival Google project

By Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 06/01/2005

Nineteen European national libraries have pledged to support a multinational effort "aimed at a large and organized digitization of the works belonging to [Europe's] heritage." The libraries involved are from Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.

The European Union (EU) effort has been seen as a "counteroffensive" to Google, coming just a few months after French national librarian Jean-Noel Jeanneney warned of a "crushing American cultural domination" implicit in Google's plan to scan the collections of major libraries (see News, LJ 1/05, p. 18ff.). Google's French version already accounts for 74 percent of French Internet searches.

Indeed, at a meeting of EU culture ministers in Paris on May 2, Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker said, according to the BBC, "We have to act…. I say 'yes' because Europe must not submit in the face of virulent attacks from others."

Juncker noted that more money would be needed, as the current rate of funding for EU cultural initiatives, roughly 0.12 percent of the EU budget, is "insignificant." However, the EU project could benefit Google users, presuming Google spiders would crawl European digital libraries.