[Overview]
In July 1971, Michael Hart created Project Gutenberg with the goal of
making available for free, and electronically, literary works belonging
to public domain. A pioneer site in a number of ways, Project Gutenberg
was the first information provider on the internet and is the oldest
digital library. When the internet became popular in the mid-1990s, the
project got a boost and gained an international dimension. The number
of electronic books rose from 1,000 (in August 1997) to 5,000 (in April
2002), 10,000 (in October 2003), 15,000 (in January 2005), 20,000 (in
December 2006) and 25,000 (in April 2008), with a current production
rate of around 340 new books each month. With 55 languages and 40
mirror sites around the world, books are being downloaded by the tens
of thousands every day. Project Gutenberg promotes digitization in
"text format", meaning that a book can be copied, indexed, searched,
analyzed and compared with other books. Contrary to other formats, the
files are accessible for low-bandwidth use. The main source of new
Project Gutenberg eBooks is Distributed Proofreaders, conceived in
October 2000 by Charles Franks to help in the digitizing of books from
public domain.
[In Depth (published in 2005, updated in 2008)]
The electronic book (eBook) is now 37 years old, which is still a short
life comparing to the five and a half century print book. eBooks were
born with Project Gutenberg, created by Michael Hart in July 1971 to
make available for free electronic versions of literary books belonging
to public domain. A pioneer site in a number of ways, Project Gutenberg
was the first information provider on an embryonic internet and is the
oldest digital library. Long considered by its critics as impossible on
a large scale, Project Gutenberg had 25,000 books in April 2008, with
tens of thousands downloads daily. To this day, nobody has done a
better job of putting the world's literature at everyone's disposal,
while creating a vast network of volunteers all over the world, without
wasting people's skills or energy.
During the first twenty years, Michael Hart himself keyed in the first
hundred books, with the occasional help of others. When the internet
became popular, in the mid-1990s, the project got a boost and gained an
international dimension. Michael still typed and scanned in books, but
now coordinated the work of dozens and then hundreds of volunteers
across many countries. The number of electronic books rose from 1,000
(in August 1997) to 2,000 (in May 1999), 3,000 (in December 2000) and
4,000 (in October 2001).
37 years after its birth, Project Gutenberg is running at full
capacity. It had 5,000 books online in April 2002, 10,000 books in
October 2003, 15,000 books in January 2005, 20,000 books in December
2006 and 25,000 books in April 2008, with 340 new books available per
month, with 40 mirror sites worldwide, and with books downloaded by the
tens of thousands every day.
Whether they were digitized 30 years ago or digitized now, all the
books are captured in Plain Vanilla ASCII (the original 7-bit ASCII),
with the same formatting rules, so they can be read easily by any
machine, operating system or software, including on a PDA, a cellphone
or an eBook reader. Any individual or organization is free to convert
them to different formats, without any restriction except respect for
copyright laws in the country involved.
In January 2004, Project Gutenberg had spread across the Atlantic with
the creation of Project Gutenberg Europe. On top of its original
mission, it also became a bridge between languages and cultures, with a
number of national and linguistic sections. While adhering to the same
principle: books for all and for free, through electronic versions that
can be used and reproduced indefinitely. And, as a second step, the
digitization of images and sound, in the same spirit.