[10828] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France:_Internet Digital Libraries_ France ch.p2/4
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Mon Nov 18 21:09:37 1996
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 12:35:52 -0600 (CST)
From: Jack Kessler <kessler@well.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
FYI France: _Internet Digital Libraries_, "France" chapter, pt.2/4
(This is a continuation of the excerpt from _Internet Digital Libraries :
The International Dimension_ -- its chapter on "France". Part 1 contained
the chapter's general introduction, and its descriptions of the
Bibliothe`que Publique d'Information, INIST, and the Bibliothe`que
municipale de Lyon. Here in Part 2, FRANTEXT / ARTFL, the IRCAM / Institut
de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique - Musique, Minitel, the Ministry
of Culture's work, and the BIBLIO-FR econference are described.)
* FRANTEXT / ARTFL -- fulltext online digital information techniques
One great logical conundrum of the Digital Libraries effort -- as yet
unaddressed, let alone solved -- is whether and to what extent Digital
Libraries will have to adapt traditional, pre - digitization,
information - finding techniques, like the MARC / Machine Readable
Cataloging formats, or will be able simply to ignore them and proceed
directly to providing fulltext to the user online, rather than any
bibliographic records which merely describe and represent them. "All
this leads one to think that, in a short while, access to fulltext might
render useless any new work on the MARC format," wonders the president
of the French Conseil supe'rieur des bibliothe`ques, Michel Melot [2].
The French are forging ahead with both. The BPI and the BM Lyon (above)
show examples of the traditional approach: imperfect perhaps, it can be
observed, for their lack of standardization. But there also is French
fulltext -- perhaps unhampered, perhaps not, by traditional bibliography
as an intermediary -- to be found at:
* FRANTEXT, digitized fulltexts assembled for the massive French
dictionary effort -- TLF / Tre'sors de la Langue Franc,aise [3], by the
Institut NAtional de la Langue Franc,aise / INALF -- nearly 2000 French
full texts drawn from various centuries and disciplines.
via W3 to http://www.ciril.fr/~mastina/FRANTEXT
And then, in addition or perhaps instead,
* ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago: the "project for American
and french Research on the Treasury of the French Language", which
includes the FRANTEXT fulltexts with a different search - engine than
that used by FRANTEXT itself, along with many other French scholarly
resources -- a Provenc,al poetry database, linguistic tools for
FRANTEXT, a project to mount Diderot's Encyclope'die online, a number of
ARTFL imaging projects, and links to others.
via W3 to http://humanities.uchicago.edu/ARTFL.html
As with the printed - book libraries -- the BPI and the BM Lyon -- one
notices immediately questions of standardization and language: what
standard will be used in providing online fulltext? what language --
whose, and which version of that? ARTFL even has seen it necessary to
provide an entirely different search engine, presumably in some part to
suit the different needs of its essentially - North American users. The
question of multi - lingual access is answered by ARTFL, but not
addressed by the French - language - only Frantext.
* IRCAM / Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique - Musique /
Institute for Research and Acoustic - Music Coordination -- online sound
techniques
Lest anyone forget, sound as well as text and images is being digitized
and provided online actively by Digital Libraries. The IRCAM is part of
the giant "Centre Pompidou" cultural complex in Paris, which also
contains the BPI. Its online offerings include a music software users'
group, music and sound software evaluations, bibliographic access to a
library of books, music scores, recordings, and multimedia resources,
and descriptions of projects such as "Le tunnel sous l'Atlantique", for
"interactive music" between Paris and Montre'al.
Like the other institutions of the Centre Pompidou, and of France
generally, IRCAM presents its online information in English as well as
in French, and it is very much a product of the French central,
national, government: created in 1969 by the French President Georges
Pompidou and the composer Pierre Boulez, and continuing under government
ministry aegis.
via W3 to http://www.ircam.fr
* Minitel -- the online service: the organization and delivery of
information
Minitel is an integral part of the French Digital Libraries
infrastructure, and it is one of the largest and earliest global
providers of online digital information generally: earlier than the
Internet by a decade. Today over 7 million Minitel terminals and several
million more terminal - emulation hookups, worldwide, provide general
public users access to nearly 25 million online digital information
products and services, including hundreds of library resources.
(A list of the Minitel "library" resources -- specifically so - called -
- is provided in the Appendix. There are hundreds of other resources,
however -- "documentation centers", "archives", "booksellers services",
and thousands of general reference resources -- which also provide
library service on the Minitel.)
The Minitel was developed, during the late 1970's and early 1980's, by
the national French telephone monopoly, France Te'le'com, as France's
entry into the race for computerization / automation / informatisation.
This is a race keenly felt by the French, surrounded as they are by
European hi - tech competitors -- Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and
above all Germany -- and over - shadowed as they feel themselves to be,
in this and other fields, by "le de'fi ame'ricain" / the "American
Challenge" posed by the US.
An early Minitel application -- by no means ever the only one, and never
intended to be the most important -- was the French national telephone
book, which was loaded online onto Minitel at the same time as,
unconfirmed marketing legend has it, the printed version became "very
hard to obtain" for a while in France. Early developments included the
growth of the infamous Minitel Rose, with its "sex - chat" and various
sex services. Eventually, however, public sector and commercial service
activity replace both the "annuaire" and "Minitel Rose" as the most
important engines of Minitel's growth.
Among the services rendered by the national government in mounting
Minitel was the provision of universal access to general public users.
The well - organized Minitel "kiosk" system also effectively subsidized
the billing component, one of the largest and most difficult portions of
any retail mail order or distribution operation, by allowing consumers
to charge service usage to their normal telephone accounts.
Less easy to see at the time, however -- certainly less easy to see then
as a goal of public policy -- was the provision of Minitel as a basic,
simplistic, but highly "user - friendly" service for general public
online usage, anticipating the development of similar techniques for the
Internet today.
The relatively - primitive state of Minitel's "videotext" technology at
the time was more than counter - balanced by the foresight of France
Te'le'com and Minitel's creators in aiming the service at the "un -
interested" general public user, at a time when the Internet was in use
only by engineers.
Now that the Internet at last is opening, its development of Mosaic /
Netscape interfaces and hypertext / WorldWideWeb links, and general
public - oriented commercial applications, represents a prime example of
hi - tech "convergence", in this case of Internet technique with the
original Minitel "general public" orientation and approach.
via W3 to http://www.minitel.fr ; or via telnet to minitel.fr , or (in
North America) via voice telephone to 1- 800 - MINITEL , or through any
France Te'le'com office.
* Ministry of Culture -- "French Culture, Inc.", online
The French National Ministry of Culture is perhaps the best place to
visit online to appreciate the "flexible centralization" which
characterizes Digital Libraries efforts in France.
Few countries anywhere even have a high - level "Ministry of Culture"
(even fewer have one also devoted to its national language, as the
official title "Ministry of Culture and Francophonie" indicates). This
particular central government ministry not only has one of the most
comprehensive and best - presented online presences itself, but it was
an early leader in online work generally.
The projects which the Ministry of Culture encourages and often directly
supports include most of the library, museum, and archival experiments
in digital media going on throughout the country.
Most remarkable, for a government Ministry officially devoted to
linguistic nationalism, the French Ministry of Culture itself offers
online access to its resources and services in, of all things, the much
- maligned "anglo - saxonne" language, English: few more dramatic proofs
of the flexibility of the French, even in their intense centralization,
might be provided than this -- even as "French Culture, Inc.", online,
the supposedly - jingoistic French very pragmatically offer English.
Even if the US had a Ministry of Culture, one somehow doubts that it
would bother to translate all of its W3 homepage screens into French,
into any other non - English language, or even into English English for
that matter: "color" never would become "colour", "catalog" would not be
"catalogue". French relative flexibility in language matters is a seldom
- recognised thing.
via W3 to http://www.culture.fr
* BIBLIO-FR -- electronic conference discussions online, and their
archives
One new and virtually unrecognised resource of the global Digital
Libraries effort is the well - run online electronic conference, and its
invaluable archive. In an age when so much is being invented anew, very
little exists yet in traditional media -- in print, on film -- which can
inform a user about Digital Libraries.
Online e - conferences, however -- when they are well - disciplined
efforts, governed by special Listserve or List Processor software and a
flexible but firm human moderator -- have been assembling enormous
stores of accumulated knowledge and often wisdom about Digital Libraries
efforts.
Online archives of these e - conference discussions, which in some cases
take place among thousands of individuals located in dozens of
countries, are stored and searched easily.
BIBLIO-FR, the French librarians' e - conference, was created in 1993
and since has grown to include membership and postings from most
librarians and archivists in France who use digital media at all,
substantive discussion of most Digital Libraries issues, enthusiastic
participation by francophone librarians -- most francophile, a few
francophobe -- located in various countries, and even an occasional
posting by a French ambassador and by the Minister of Culture himself.
There are few better starting or continuation points for any pursuit of
French Digital Libraries knowledge than a free - of - charge
subscription to BIBLIO-FR.
BIBLIO-FR has not chosen, as have so many other French Digital Libraries
resources, to make its discussions available in English - language
translation.
The BIBLIO-FR intent is, after all, to be a professional discussion
group for librarians in France, and the primitive state of machine
translation is such that the task of keeping up with the extemporaneous
style and enormously - rapid growth of something like an e - conference
discussion appears for now to be impossible.
An e - conference might manage such an effort relying on volunteers,
however: e - conference email communication is informal enough that
subscribers simply might translate each other's postings.
Two versions of both the BIBLIO-FR current postings and the archives are
maintained: one with the French diacritical marks, which requires
special software to be read at terminals, and one without. This is done
to some extent to accommodate French users who simply don't possess the
necessary software.
To a greater extent, however, such accommodated users are non - French
people online who have no other need for the software but still would
like to read the messages. It is interesting that even BIBLIO-FR has
tried its best to accommodate the outside, non - francophone world:
multi - lingual e - conferences, and even mono - lingual e - conferences
which go to this length to accommodate foreign users, still are a very
rare thing online.
Next month: Parts 3 & 4 of 4 -- The BNs de France and d'Art(?!), and some
common themes in "Digital Libraries" work in France.
XXX
The book's full outline:
Internet Digital Libraries: The International Dimension
by Jack Kessler, kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Part I: Setting the Stage
Chapter 1: The Internet Goes Public -- A New Story, Digital Information
Chapter 2: Digitization in Libraries -- An Old Story, Information and
Libraries
Chapter 3: Incunabula -- The Development of Digital Libraries in the US
Part II: Specifics -- National
Chapter 4: France -- Flexible Centralization
Chapter 5: Singapore -- Rigid Centralization
Chapter 6: China -- Chinese Uniqueness
Chapter 7: India -- An Awakening Giant
Chapter 8: Australia -- The Antipodes, and the Sheer Reach of Digital
Information
Chapter 9: Thailand -- The Blending of Worlds, Third and Other
Chapter 10: The UK -- Crowded Pipes
Chapter 11: Hungary -- Phenomenon of the Stranger
Chapter 12: Japan -- Investing vs. Consuming
Chapter 13: Indonesia -- The Rest of Asia, and the World
Chapter 14: National Government -- the NSF Digital Libraries Projects,
in the US
Part III: Specifics -- International
Chapter 15: Language
Chapter 16: Politics and Political Structures
Chapter 17: Technical Standards
Chapter 18: Business
Chapter 19: International Organizations
Part IV. Generalities -- International
Chapter 20: Media and Messages -- Is the Pipe Neutral?
Chapter 21: Libraries and Information -- Warehouses and Services?
Chapter 22: Human Users -- Fitting Something New In -- Wine and Bottles,
Chickens and Eggs
Appendix A: French Libraries Online -- the vast range of possibilities
for Digital Libraries access overseas, including some not on the
Internet but nonetheless Digital and accessible.
Appendix B: Electronic Conferences in France -- professional development
possibilities online -- the future for the Digital Library, in any
country -- one national example.
Appendix C: A Small Statistical Essai -- a "try" or "attempt" at not
answering but at least asking a few general questions about the
phenomenally - expanding international use of the Internet, based
loosely on some brave statistics - gathering efforts which others have
undertaken.
Appendix D: Digital Libraries so - called -- some unsophisticated
"content analysis".
Glossary
Annotated Bibliography and Resource List
General Index
ISBN 0-89006-875-5. Artech House is at telephone 1-800-225-9977, or,
http://www.artech-house.com/artech/html/catalog/
book_html/0-89006-875-5.html?d8h3f9
XXX
FYI France (sm)(tm) e - newsletter ISSN 1071 - 5916
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