Transcript Digital library as a controversy: Gallica vs Google

Digital library as a controversy:
Gallica vs Google
Gaëlle Béquet
Ecole nationale des chartes / ASSIC
Université Paris III Sorbonne nouvelle
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Introduction
• My research project focuses on two
technological innovations in European national
libraries, i.e. the digital library and the
conservation of born-digital heritage or Eheritage
• What are the organisational, political and
symbolic challenges of these two major
innovations for libraries in Europe ?
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Introduction
• Issues:
• What are the groups involved in the process of
innovation in libraries ?
• Is there any competition / cooperation between
national libraries and between national libraries
and the private sector ?
• What are the symbolic aspects of the digital
library and of E-heritage ?
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Introduction
• This presentation is to deal with an element of
my research: the digital library as an innovation.
• Most digital libraries are based on similar
technological bricks like TCP/IP, 2D digitization,
OCR, electronic storage facilities, servers,
metadata, search and retrieval systems,..which
can be considered as inventions.
• The innovation called the digital library is a
process characterized by a high degree of
interpretive flexibility: different innovators (or
actors) have different approaches.
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Introduction
• Actors who take part in the process of innovation
can be identified when a controversy arises
according to the actor-network theory (ANT).
• This presentation will analyse the controversy
Google triggered when it launched its digitization
project in 2004.
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Theoretical framework
• Actor-network sociology of innovation or actornetwork theory (ANT)
• Developed in the 80s and 90s by Michel Callon
(Fr.), Bruno Latour (Fr.) and John Law (UK),
sociologists
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Theoretical framework
• Technology is contingent and shaped socially: it
is dependent on sociological, political, economic
and historical circumstances.
• Before a technology is stabilized or is
« blackboxed », it is taken amidst conflicting
interests which lead to a controversy.
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Theoretical framework
• Concept of inscription
• « The protagonists [or actors] seek to establish
or maintain a particular technology or set of
technological arrangements and with this a set
of social, scientific, economic and organizational
relations. » (Bijker & Law, 1992)
• « like a film script, technical objects define a
framework of action together with the actors and
the space in which they are going to act. »
(Akrich, 1992)
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Theoretical framework
• Concept of actor
• « The actor is an element which makes other
elements dependent upon itself and translates
their will into a language of its own. […] The
actor tells you what you want, what you will be
able to do in 5, 10 or 15 years, in which order
you will do it, what you will be glad to possess
and of what you will be capable. And you really
believe this, you identify with the actor and will
help him or her with all your strength. » (Callon &
Latour, 1981)
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Theoretical framework
• Concept of network
• Global network: « a set of relations between an
actor and its neighbours on one hand and
between those neigbours on the other » (Callon
& Law, 1992)
• Local network: « the development of an array of
the heterogeneous sets of bits and pieces that is
necessary to the successful production of any
working device » (id.)
• Links between the two networks are named
obligatory passing points.
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Theoretical framework
• Concept of translation
• Heterogeneous actors belonging to a global
network can reach an agreement to promote an
innovation thanks to translation.
• « By translation we understand all the
negotiations, intrigues, calculations, acts of
persuasion and violence, thanks to which an
actor or force takes or causes to be conferred n
itself authority to speak or act on behalf of
another actor or force. » (Callon & Latour, 1981)
• The controversy is the expression of the
translation process.
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Case study: Gallica vs Google
• ANT relies on innovation case studies such as
aircraft, fluorescent lighting, scallop industry…
• Hanseth & Monteiro (1998) used ANT to study
information infrastrucures in Norway.
• My case study is the controversy about the
digital library (2004-2009).
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Context analysis
• 1997-2002 : digital libraries compared to
« cabinets de curiosité in their limited ability to
support scholarship or address information
needs of defined community users » (Dalbello,
2004)
• In Europe and in the USA: pilot project policies,
call for proposals, digitization of special
collections belonging to the public domain.
• In 1998, the French national library set up
Gallica, an encyclopaedic digital library based
on image-mode digitization with a collection
development policy.
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Context analysis
• Google company was created in Sept. 1998. Its
main product was then « a large-scale search
engine which makes heavy use of the structure
present in hypertext » (Brin & Page, 1998)
• On Aug. 19th 2004, Google entered the stock
market (NASDAQ) and launched an initial public
offering quickly raising 1,7 billion dollars. The
company was thus in a position to invest
massively and undertake new projects.
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The sociotechnical network
in progress
• Oct. 2004: Frankfurt Book Fair, Google’s
founders announced the Google Print Program
• Dec. 2004: Google announced a second project,
the Library Digitization Plan
• « We launched the first part of Google Print on
October to make the world of books more
discoverable. The thing is most books in the
world are out of print. By working with libraries
as well as with publishers, we’ll have access to
millions of books, including many unique
volumes that haven’t been read in years. »
(O’Sullivan & Smith, 2004)
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The sociotechnical network
in progress
• On Jan. 23rd, 2005, Jean-Noël Jeanneney,
director of the French national library (20022007), published an editorial in the newspaper
Le Monde entitled « Quand Google défie
l’Europe » (When Google challenges Europe)
• April 2005: he published a book with the same
title
• 2006: new French edition with an introduction
entitled Chronicle of a battle
• Oct. 2006: English edition published by the
University of Chicago Press
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The sociotechnical network
in progress
• Jeanneney’s main criticisms against Google’s
project?
• Mostly English-language resources
• Targeted advertisement
• Biased results and secret algorithm
• Lack of bibliographic data
• Libraries will not get any financial benefit
• Long-term preservation uncertain
• Copyright issues not taken into account
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The sociotechnical network
in progress
• What does Jeanneney advocate ?
• State regulation in cultural and communication
matters
• Cooperation between libraries and other
memory institutions, such as archives and
museums
• Public collection development policy
• Respect of copyright legislation
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Jeanneney as the translator
• Focus point of the network
• Jeanneney’s family belongs to the so called
« noblesse d’Etat » (Bourdieu)
• His grandfather was the president of the French
senate (1932-1944)
• His father was Minister of industry after the
Second World War
• Jean-Noël Jeanneney was Secretary of state for
trade (1991-1992) and for communication (19921993)
• Alumnus of the Ecole normale supérieure,
university professor and historian of the media 19
Jeanneney as the translator
• Legitimacy of the « noblesse d’Etat »
• Legitimacy conferred upon him as the president
of the new French national library based in
Tolbiac, a project launched by President
François Mitterrand in 1988
• Jeanneney’s book is the obligatory passing point
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Jeanneney’s network
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French government
European leaders
French and European administrations
European national libraries
Publishers
Online book vendors
R&D companies
Media
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Google’s network
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Publishers
Authors
Federal government
Libraries from different countries
representing different languages
• Online book vendors
• Union catalogues such as the French
SUDOC
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Innovative digital libraries
• Gallica 2:
• From image-mode to text-mode digitization
• Access to public domain and copyrighted
material
• Agreement with publishers and online book
vendors
• Development of a new search engine Quaero
• Part of Europeana, the European digital library
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Innovative digital libraries
• Google Books:
• Text-mode digitization
• Access to public domain and copyrighted
material
• Agreement with publishers and online book
vendors
• Library link
• Targeted advertisement
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Conclusion
• Industrialization of memory
• Heritage institutions challenged by private actors
• Memory or anti-memory: from pyramidal
structure to the rhizome
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Thank you.
Gaëlle Béquet
Email : [email protected]
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