Google's plan to put some of the world's greatest libraries on the web have sparked fear of further anglophone domination, say reports.
Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who heads France's national library and is a noted historian, says Google's choice of works is likely to favour Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language.
He wants the European Union to balance this with its own program and its own internet search engines.
"It is not a question of despising Anglo-Saxon views ... It is just that in the simple act of making a choice, you impose a certain view of things," Mr Jeanneney said.
Of course, there's not a lot wrong with saying "we want our library digitised" (and France is well known for its cultural protectionism) so I think Le Figaro's attempt to turn this into a "war cry" is a bit off the mark.
But it does seem to ignore the fact that Google has not said (as far as I'm aware) it is only digitising English-language works - and the slow progress being made by France on the web.
