Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge

Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 109
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226395838
ISBN-13 : 0226395839
Rating : 4/5 (38 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge by : Jean-Noël Jeanneney

Download or read book Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge written by Jean-Noël Jeanneney and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent announcement that Google will digitize the holdings of several major libraries sent shock waves through the book industry and academe. Google presented this digital repository as a first step towards a long-dreamed-of universal library, but skeptics were quick to raise a number of concerns about the potential for copyright infringement and unanticipated effects on the business of research and publishing. Jean-Noël Jeanneney, president of France’s Bibliothèque Nationale, here takes aim at what he sees as a far more troubling aspect of Google’s Library Project: its potential to misrepresent—and even damage—the world’s cultural heritage. In this impassioned work, Jeanneney argues that Google’s unsystematic digitization of books from a few partner libraries and its reliance on works written mostly in English constitute acts of selection that can only extend the dominance of American culture abroad. This danger is made evident by a Google book search the author discusses here—one run on Hugo, Cervantes, Dante, and Goethe that resulted in just one non-English edition, and a German translation of Hugo at that. An archive that can so easily slight the masters of European literature—and whose development is driven by commercial interests—cannot provide the foundation for a universal library. As a leading librarian, Jeanneney remains enthusiastic about the archival potential of the Web. But he argues that the short-term thinking characterized by Google’s digital repository must be countered by long-term planning on the part of cultural and governmental institutions worldwide—a serious effort to create a truly comprehensive library, one based on the politics of inclusion and multiculturalism.


Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge Related Books

Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge
Language: en
Pages: 109
Authors: Jean-Noël Jeanneney
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-09-15 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The recent announcement that Google will digitize the holdings of several major libraries sent shock waves through the book industry and academe. Google present
Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge
Language: en
Pages: 130
Authors: Ian Wilson
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-08-22 - Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The recent announcement that Google would digitize the holdings of several major libraries sent shock waves through the book industry and academe. Google presen
Designing Universal Knowledge
Language: en
Pages: 312
Authors: Gerlinde Schuller
Categories: Architecture
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009 - Publisher: Lars Muller Publishers

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This publication draws upon historical milestones to explore the meaning of 'universal knowledge' as well as the process of collecting, structuring, designing,
The Demise of the Library School
Language: en
Pages: 358
Authors: Richard J. Cox
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010 - Publisher: Library Juice Press, LLC

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In The Demise of the Library School, Richard J. Cox places the present and future of professional education for librarianship in the debate on the modern corpor
The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge
Language: en
Pages: 257
Authors: Joshua Ehrlich
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-07-06 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The East India Company is remembered as the world's most powerful, not to say notorious, corporation. But for many of its advocates from the 1770s to the 1850s