Book Project E-Book

melissa amy

• Herausgeber: Amy Melissa
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

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 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, launched in October 2000 by Charles Franks to help in
the digitizing of books from public domain.

Leseprobe

Amy Melissa

1. OVERVIEW

August 1997: 1,000 books; April 2002: 5,000 books; October 2003: 10,000 books;

January 2005: 15,000 books; December 2006: 20,000 books; April 2008: 25,000

books.

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 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, launched in October 2000 by Charles Franks to help in

the digitizing of books from public domain.

2. A BET SINCE 1971

If the print book is 5 centuries and a half old, the electronic book is only 37

years old. It is 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 counted 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. And to create a vast network of volunteers

all over the world, without wasting people's skills or energy.

During the fist twenty years, Michael Hart himself keyed in the first hundred

books, with the occasional help of others from time to time. When the internet

became popular, in the mid-1990s, the project got a boost and an international

dimension. Michael still typed and scanned in books, but now coordinated the

work of dozens and then hundreds of volunteers in 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, 40 mirror sites in a number of

countries, books downloaded by the tens of thousands every day, and tens of

thousands of volunteers in various teams.

Whether they were digitized 30 years ago or they are 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 cell phone 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.

Let us get back to the beginnings of the project. When he was a student at the

University of Illinois (USA), Michael Hart was given $100,000,000 of computer

time at the Materials Research Lab of his university. On July 4, 1971, on

Independence Day, Michael keyed in The United States Declaration of Independence

(signed on July 4, 1776) to the mainframe he was using. In upper case, because

there was no lower case yet. But to send a 5 K file to the 100 users of the

embryonic internet would have crashed the network. So Michael mentioned where

the eText was stored (though without a hypertext link, because the web was still