The 29th library to join the Google Book Search Library project is the municipal library of Lyon. That would be Lyon, France, and the municipal library is the second largest library in the country. The largest? The national library in Paris, headed by Jean-Noel Jeanneney, who has been quoted since 2005 as being opposed to the Google project, fearing it would diminish France’s presence in and impact on the world of internet search. Lyon intends to digitize over 500,000 books, not just in French, but aslo in German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and English, that are in its out-of-copyright historic and special collections. It’s the first French library, but not the first European library, to join the project.

Jaye Lapachet, Library Manager for Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP in San Francisco and an SLA member, has published an article about business development and the new library. If that gets a yawn from you, since you already know how important libraries and librarians are in the business development process, pay attention to where Jaye published this: National Law Journal, which has the prestigious URL of law.com. It’s read by legal professionals not information professionals. And this is what information professionals should be doing, publishing in places where our clientele will find us. It’s fine to share knowledge among ourselves — which is the role of ONLINE — but validating our importance to those who use our services and those who fund our services is equally important. This Law Journal article should serve as a model for librarians in other industry/service sectors.