Ok so actually this tangent deserves development in its own post: global library/translation/publishing resource. The inspo: post about how it sucks when white atheistic scifi is the overwhelming norm and how celebrating religion/culture in scifi is important, and my tags thereon:
So given the current state of things I'd need to ask how this thing could make/raise money first (fuck capitalism) but if hypothetically all the people of the world supported it being free to access AND it enabled authors trapped in capitalism to still thrive (possible right now: arts grant funding. Governments/people provide $$ to allow the library to pay authors/publishers and run itself and stuff. IE make it a public service. It will cost $$ as long as $$ is a thing, but it would do so much good it would be worth it) -- like hot damn that would be excellent.
Godddd the complexity though. Like beyond needing librarians, translators, non/not-for-profit publishers (also a public service!!), you'd need country specific legal teams, cultural ambassadors, finance guys.
I'm thinking of how to handle inclusion fairly. Obviously stealing works is not fair--do you accept literarure/translations based on author say so? Language speaker/culture say so? Based on foreign rules (eg imposed democratic vote or other system; to be clear, ick) or the language speakers/culture's own internal rules (hella varied & complex ie expensive/potentially unnecessarily exclusionary)? *The people* vs their governments?
Ethical/cultural/linguistic consideration: universal access to literature in all languages could be a threat to minority languages' & cultures' continued existence. EG take a linguaculture with a very small relative population, a very small relative body of literature in the native language, and flood it with access to every work by every other culture translated into their own language (for simplicity ignoring the actual work of translating, imagine a universal translation program if you like): free access to a huge body of works that they are a tiny minority in. Their works & language could be swamped by all the rest; globalization & global language domination are a real threat as kids--the future of the linguaculture--see more opportunity in learning other cultures and/or languages. If they happen to have a strong linguaculture, (self/representative) government, economy, etc they might withstand the influx. But you (and they) have got to ask the questions:
Does the linguaculture have a solid foundation, speaker determination to ensure the languages survives/thrives? Is there already a history of having to learn their country's dominant/main language/linguaculture so (as is common with 2nd & 3rd generation immigrants) kids are more focused on learning the dominant language/culture? Is there language/culture revitalization work already in progress? Does their government support them passing down their linguaculture to their kids & grandkids? Is there an economic or social future that favors the linguaculture's survival/vitality?
Options that could be offered to minority language speakers/cultures:
graded/gradual access (likely necessary b/c of the translation work needed anyway). Seek interested speakers of the language to either learn (an)other language(s) & translate themselves, or to teach others their linguaculture & work w/outsiders to translate. Works get translated little by little over time, their choice on whether they focus on translating their literature into foreign languages (spreading outsider access to their culture) vs translating foreign literature into their language (potentially reinforcing use of their language but also introducing them to foreign cultures) or some mix of both (eg alternate translations into & out of their language in parity)
Universal access (assume automated translation possible, or after the graded process above), but highlighting works by & in the linguaculture. Or just highlighting works in the language (including translations). Eg selecting your language autoselects a filter that searches for/browses works in your language
Universal access, unfocused: the service whether web-based or with brick & mortar locations has got to operate in some language/s, which must be selected. That provides some basic focus, although selecting the language of works to search/browse for separately could allow a setting like Language/s: All that wouldn't highlight works by/in the linguaculture
Filterable access, indivual linguaculture or country default settings: let them decide both what people of their linguaculture see by default (their language vs a different one) and let individual people select their own focus. This still runs into the problem of the people =/= their government, which group/entity gets to decide, how much does the answer to this vary between nations/cultures/regions of the world (there will not be universal agreement; some people/nations/cultures will be unhappy)
No access (especially closed cultures) & no translations; limited access (only works by/in the linguaculture; only works in the language; only works by people who share the linguaculture (translations to foreign languages included); no access/limited for their people but offering translations for outsiders (freedom of access: if a nation/linguaculture votes/decides no access but individuals w/in that nation/linguaculture want access anyway, how & to what extent will this be allowed? Same issue w/all of the above re: indivual free access to information--how un/acceptable is linguacultural censorship, even if a minority linguaculture's survival is at risk?
Age-dependent limitations? Personally I'd go for no hard age block but have a kid-focused option (what library doesn't have a kids' section?) But various countries will have laws about such shit & try various ways of censoring various content, and not just for kids, so this needs serious protections
Cultural exchange is a back and forth, right? When cultures collide, there's generally some kind of language/ cultural sharing: mutual/cooperative (balanced & unbalanced options), one-sided/imperialist domination. And people ought to be able to self-determine (on what level of societal organization?) what they want to share with others about their language/culture & how much they want to share/learn foreign languages/cultures
To talk more about levels of societal organization: let's say the central resource has a rule that any adult individual can access anything regardless of national/cultural defaults (some countries may ban access, could try to also block access), countries can pick their own default access settings, parents/government can teeter-totter child permissions--ie a kid blocked from accessing something by the state can petition a parent or state representative; a kid blocked from accessing something by a parent can petition for (partial? Like they could be a enancipated minor for the purposes of book selection without having to give up their financial/legal minority) self-guardianship/petition a state representative for access). Where do subnational and international linguacultures fit in? Do they need to organize formally eg have a language/culture foundation in order to set/recommend default settings?
