If we accept the principle that making information more generally available to the public free of charge is a Good Thing, then Google's effort to digitize and place online all or part of the colossal holdings of major libraries must be counted as a Great Thing

If we accept the principle that making information more generally available to the public free of charge is a Good Thing, then Google's effort to digitize and place online all or part of the colossal holdings of major libraries must be counted as a Great Thing. Once completed, the project will allow visitors to view books not only in the public domain but in copyright as well (albeit to a restricted degree).

This enterprise by a private American company-Google intends to make money by placing small ads on the pages-has, of course, provoked the mandarins of the European Union into the usual fits of anti-American paranoia. According to Jean-Noel Jeanneney, the conspiracy-minded president of the BibliothSque Nationale de France, Google's idea "is the confirmation of the risk of crushing American domination in the definition of how future generations conceive the world." M. Jeanneney and his allies are consequently lobbying for EU money (of course) to establish a pan-European online index to counter Google's presumably Anglo-Saxon bias. The end result will surely be a worthwhile and enlightening one, but in inspiration and intent, the European project is deeply unpleasant.