marily languages without writing systems at
all (only 1/3 of the world's 6,000+ languages have writing systems). I still do
not see the Web contributing to the loss of language identity and still suspect
it may, in the long run, contribute to strengthening it. More and more Native
Americans, for example, are contacting linguists, asking them to write grammars
of their language and help them put up dictionaries. For these people, the Web
is an affordable boon for cultural expression.

= What is your best experience with the Internet?

My own website, whose popularity continues to astound me. I receive a dozen or
so letters from visitors each day, at least half of which compliment my work. It
is difficult to maintain the size of my ego but the flattery is very good for
the soul. I am astounded that only 6 years away from the inception of the Web, I
can find over 1200 creditable on-line dictionaries in more than 200 different
languages.

= And your worst experience?

The worst experience is finding my website copied with my name removed from it.
I have always been able to resolve the problem, however. My experience with the
Internet has been very positive and if yourDictionary.com succeeds, it will be
even more positive.

MICHAEL BEHRENS (Bielefeld, Germany)

#In charge of the digital library of the digital library of the Bielefeld
University Library

* Interview of September 25, 1998

= When did you begin your digital library?

It depends what you understand this term to mean. To some here, "digital
library" seems to be everything even remotely to do with the Internet. The
library started its own web server in summer 1995. There's no exact date because
it took some time for us to get it to work in a reasonably reliable way. Before
that, it had been offering most of its services via Telnet, which wasn't used
much by customers, although in theory they could have accessed a lot of material
from home. But in those days hardly anybody had Internet access at home. We
started digitizing rare prints from our own library, and some that were sent in
via library loan, in November 1996.

= How many digitized texts do you have?

In that first phase of our attempts at digitization, starting in November 1996
and ending in June 1997, 38 rare prints were scanned as image files and made
available on the Web. In the same period, there were also a few digital
materials prepared as accompanying material for lectures held at the