[12168] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Project Gutenberg Needs YOU!!!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael S. Hart)
Wed Apr 22 22:57:59 1998
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 19:08:10 -0500
From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The Project Gutenberg Request for Support for April 23, 1998
[World Book Day, and National Library Week. . .sending it an
extra day early because many listservers will delay relaying
a day or so. . .hoping you receive this in a timely manner.]
This is a blatant request for support for Project Gutenberg.
If you do not wish to support free Project Gutenberg Etexts,
please just delete this now, and accept our apologies for an
email that you didn't want. Project Gutenberg messages have
traditionally been relayed by a number of listservers so you
might get more than one copy, again our apologies.
We usually limit ourselves to sending out such requests just
once in April and once in October of each year.
***
This is sent in honor of World Book Day and National Library
Library Week in the U.S., and various other means to promote
books, reading, and literacy, please take part in any way in
these efforts.
The major purpose of Project Gutenberg is to encourage great
and small efforts towards the creation and distribution of a
library of Etexts for unlimited distribution worldwide.
The 1350th Project Gutenberg Etext should be posted by now!!
That puts us 1/3 of the from #1,000 to #2,000: or for those
who have been here for a longer time, 2/3 from #1 to #2000!!
***
Contents
Overview
1.
Copyright
2.
Scanning and Typing
3.
Proofreading
4.
FTP and WWW Sites
5.
Donations
6.
Raiders of the Lost Archives
7.
Special Requests
8.
Programming
9.
New Etexts Needing Proofreading
Followed By More Detailed Information On Most Of These Subjects
***
1.
Copyright
Project Gutenberg will do copyright research for you if you send us
xeroxes of the title page [both sides, even if one side is blank.]
We need people to hunt through libraries or bookstores for editions
that we can use to legally prepare our Electronic Texts [Etexts.]
Germany, Italy and Great Britain have each extended their copyright
to "life + 70 years," as opposed to the "life +50 years" of "Berne"
copyright conventions. Residents of those areas will have to be an
extra bit careful, as a million items that used to be Public Domain
in those countries reverted to copyright status, even though a vast
majority of them are no longer for sale. This is now true for some
other countries, including France and perhaps Brazil and Portugal.
More on the United States Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 in a
"More Detailed Information" section below.
2.
Scanning and Typing
Once we have located some proper edition[s], then our volunteers do
the books by scanning or typing them into the computer. Usually it
is the same person who does the proofreading, but not necessarily.
If you have a scanner, or have access to one, or plan to get one in
the future, please contact our Director of Production, Dianne Bean,
beand@pr.erau.edu, with a cc: to me at hart@pobox.com
2.
Proofreading
Often the only way for many of our volunteers to work on Etexts for
us is if they can ship their book to one of you, have it scanned in
and then returned to them for proofreading.
If you could do the scanning for them, it would help us immensely.
4.
FTP and WWW Sites
We would very much like to provide better access to Etext for sites
in Africa and South America, and other locales. If you know anyone
who might be able to help with this, please read this:
We are always in search of more FTP and World Wide Web sites, so an
increasing number of people can download our books without unusual,
even often fatal, delays and glitches in transmission.
If you, or someone you know, can spare a gigabyte on their servers,
please have them contact us about creating more mirror sites. This
is a particular need for countries south of the equator, where text
files are only available on one server that we know of. If you can
help us get our books into South America, Africa, and further, this
would be a great help. We have something restarted in New Zealand,
with extensions into Australia, but the load this server can handle
is probably going to be easily exhausted.
5.
Donations
Project Gutenberg is almost completely dependent on your donations.
Most of our donations are simply mailed to:
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Carnegie Mellon University has also graciously provided those means
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know, and we will put you in touch with the right people there.
The Holiday Season of 1996 was the first time we ever raised enough
in a month to support Project Gutenberg for that month, but we have
received only a few donations since that time. I would like to see
Project Gutenberg become more or less an independent grassroot type
of organization, but I am not really much of a fund-raiser type, as
the fund-raiser at Carnegie Mellon University can tell you.
Anything you can do in this are would be greatly appreciated, even,
since we are at this juncture, helping us get more Public Relations
coverage of our 2,000th Etext. This should not be too difficult in
one respect, as many of the sites on the World Wide Web have never,
not once, been updated, since 1995.
Project Gutenberg sites up updated more than once a day on average,
since we are presenting 432 Etexts per year, and plan to move to at
least 500 year after #2000, which is schedule for January 1, 2000.
As I said, anything would be greatly appreciated. This SHOULD BE a
great time to get some PR. . .but it still appears, even though the
project has been written up probably about 200 times, that they are
going to write us up when THEY have a reason to rather than when WE
have a reason, and we feel it is now time to try to break out of an
entirely too limiting niche in the computer oriented media, and get
some more general publicity out there to the millions of people who
aren't computer oriented at all, but will would like to receive the
Etexts for education or entertainment. This is a majority of world
population centers, and we should do more to reach them.
If you have any "ins" in the press or with the corporate world, this
would be a good time to use them.
6.
Raiders of the Lost Archives
As you may be aware from several events of a month ago, and earlier,
there is a downside to having Etext archives in limited distribution
modalities, simply because if one site, or one person, or even whole
countries, change their minds about what they are going to archive--
then the whole world loses access to those files.
A good example was the loss of The Oxford Book of English Verse from
Project Bartleby. We have taken great pains to get this book, which
is undoubtedly important, back on the Net. If you want to see which
sites have lost this file, just do a Yahoo search for the book, then
count the vast number of sites that have blank entries for the book,
once it was deleted from a multiplicity of links; this is an example
of how important it is for Etexts to be posted on many sites, rather
than just one site will many links to it!!!
We need volunteers who will search the world for every possible book
and help us preserve it.
Project Gutenberg will not release any of this material until we can
do the copyright research and prove it belongs in the Public Domain.
We realize that many of our volunteers sometimes get frustrated that
we do this research, which possibly takes half our time, but it will
become more and more apparent why this is a good policy as copyright
laws become stiffer and stiffer, and world intellectual property can
be limited in greater and great ways. It is quite likely that it is
going to be some time in the next calendar year that a United States
law killing off another 20 years of public domain in the US will get
passed, to join the countries listed above, in eliminating a million
books from potentially being posted as Etexts, even though 99% are a
dead issue, out of print for decades. . . .
7.
Special Requests
We occasionally receive scanned material which could have benefitted from
more cleanup before it was sent to us. What we need is proofers with
patience to read through an etext and take out stray letters, clean up the
punctuation, and send a list of questionable lines to the person who
scanned it so they can send corrections to be inserted. This usually takes
a couple of weeks, and is a good short-term project for folks who want to
get their feet wet with Project Gutenberg. Dianne Bean <beandp@primenet.com>
8.
Programming
Due to the various formats in which we receive many of our Etexts,
we need some assistance in writing PERL scripts, vi scripts, or an
assortment of other scripts that will assist our proofreaders, and
our editors, in dealing with page numbers, markups, italics and an
assortment of other formatting issue that come up time to time.
Most of these are fairly trivial and can be solved with a one line
script for each of the particular situations and we just need some
people to either run the scripts we already have, or to write some
new ones from time to time when a particularly rough Etext version
arrives at our doorstep. These scripts, which take minutes to set
up, and seconds to run, can save HOURS of proofreaders' time. You
can be a BIG help just running some of these scripts for us, or in
writing or rewriting some of them on occasion.
***
More Detailed Information
1.
Copyright
Copyright Extension Is Also Happening in the United States
Rumor has it that the United States is pushing through HR604 & S505
[House Resolution #604 and Senate Bill #505] which comprise what is
called "The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998" which will remove
20 years of what would be Public Domain information from our future
libraries. We strongly suggest you call AND write your congressmen
to avoid removing a million books from what is already becoming the
"Information Rich Versus Information Poor" in a nations in which an
illiteracy rate is virtually equal to the literacy rate, in adults,
aged 16 and over, as per the 1994 US Literacy Report.
You can subscribe to a listserver on copyright extension at:
extension-l@olemiss.edu
or go to web sites on the subject at:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~dkarjala/
http://davinci.marc.gatech.edu/~tad/dennis/no-cense.htm
2.
Scanning and Typing
We don't really want to get into a public recommendation about what
scanners and OCR [Optical Character Recognition] programs word best
. . .it is really the case that some do better on some books, while
other do better on others.
However, we ARE willing to share our experience if you ask.
3.
Proofreading
Our official accuracy level that we try to maintain has been 99.9%,
for our first release, which is usually raised to 99.95% before the
vast majority of people ever see them, and this standard has been a
standard that has been adopted by most Etext providers, including a
new effort toward Etext by the Library of Congress and the national
libraries of Great Britain and other countries.
What we hope you realize is that any serious effort to get an Etext
to 100% accuracy should take MORE effort than to create an entirely
new Etext with an accuracy level of 99.9% to 99.95%.
While many, even most, of the Project Gutenberg Etexts are accurate
to an amazing degree, even more amazing when you compare then to an
entire world of Etexts prepared by both the scholarly or commercial
Etext enterprises, we do not feel that the additional doubling of a
more than massive effort, to possibly reduce the errors, by another
.02% perhaps, would have anywhere near the value of the preparation
of an entirely new Etext with the same amount of effort.
Nevertheless, even the most famous universities of the world have a
collection of Etexts, many of which have vastly more errors that in
our collection. This is also true of the commercial Etexts. Don't
be afraid that your efforts won't be as good as all the others, the
process of improving Project Gutenberg Etexts is never ending.
In addition, there are many volunteers who would prefer to have an
Etext or at least an author selected for them to work on. As some
of you already know, _I_ have been reluctant to choose for anyone,
not wanting to bias the formation of our collection with my choice
of what are the great books of human history.
I have promised to do several things once we reached Etext #2,000,
one of which is to provide more guidance to those who seek it, and
that guidance will be coming from Dianne Bean, true librarian, who
is also working on the cataloguing project I also promised will be
forthcoming once we reach Etext #2,000.
More on:
Proofreading: We could also use people who know how to use DIFF or
similar programs that point out differences between two files, even
programmers that might only be able to search our files for matched
and unmatched quotes. [Remember that when quoting many paragraphs,
each internal paragraph gets only an opening quote.]
Our proofreading is a never-ending story. . .we run spell-checkers,
and other varieties of programs, on our Etexts, and have real human
proofreaders go over them in pretty incredible detail, but we would
be remiss if we did not tell you that over 99% of the books we work
from have their own errors, and that while we catch some of those--
we undoubtedly introduce errors of our own, and even though we will
gladly keep updating our editions, ad infinitum, the odds that this
will catch ALL the errors in the near future are virtually 0%.
Therefore. . .we need you to email us when you have suggestion, and
comments, and when you find possible errors that need correction.
4.
FTP and WWW Sites
We are willing to adjust the bandwidth on various sites by adjusting
the publicity various sites receive, and also by asking our users to
only use certain sites at certain times of the day or night. So the
drain on sites volunteering to mirror Etexts should not suffer any.
5.
Donations
We have never received any local, regional or national grants; your
donations, and the support of Carnegie Mellon University and people
I would hope to count as my friends are the backbone of our support
and we could hardly survive otherwise.
6.
Raiders of the Lost Archives
This is going to be particularly evident if the raggedy performances
that are destroying 99% of the Public Domain continue by raiding the
Public Domain, taking a million works out of the Public Domain, over
a period of 20 years, and putting perhaps 1% of 1% of them back in a
print version so that those who owned the copyrights for the past 75
years and made millions from them, can make another million per year
while 99.99% of those works disappear from public access altogether.
Of particular interest at this time is:
"The Oxford Book of English Verse"
which used to be available Project Bartleby at Columbia University.
We have the full co-operation and resources of the Internet Archive
at our disposal for this reclamation project and have succeeded.
You will see "The Oxford Book of English Verse" in the list below:
This is an advance listing of books still needing proofreading, and
are still a month or two away from their official release dates.
Jun 1998 Off on a Comet, by Jules Verne [Jules Verne #7][cometxxx.xxx]1353
Jun 1998 An Old Maid, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #17][omaidxxx.xxx]1352
Jun 1998 Chignecto Isthmus; First Settlers, Howard Trueman [chgntxxx.xxx]1351
Jun 1998 The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac[Balzac #16][ctrdrxxx.xxx]1350
Jun 1998 Russia, by Donald Mackenzie Wallace [rsdmwxxx.xxx]1349
Jun 1998 A Master's Degree, by Margaret Hill McCarter [amsdgxxx.xxx]1348
Jun 1998 A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson, by Edouard le Roy[anphbxxx.xxx]1347
Jun 1998 Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx [mar18xxx.xxx]1346
Jun 1998 The Vicar of Tours, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac#15][vcrtrxxx.xxx]1345
Jun 1998 Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan, Balzac [#14][sdpdcxxx.xxx]1344
Jun 1998 Bureaucracy, by Honore de Balzac [Balzac #13][brcrcxxx.xxx]1343
Jun 1998 Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen [Austen #8][pandpxxx.xxx]1342
Jun 1998 The Altruist in Politics, by Benjamin Cardozo [ltpltxxx.xxx]1341
Jun 1998 Salome, by Oscar Wilde [Accents] [Oscar Wilde #21]salmexxh.xxx]1340
^Not Available Yet^
Jun 1998 Salome, by Oscar Wilde[No Accents][Oscar Wilde #21]salmexxx.xxx]1339
Jun 1998 Selected Prose of Oscar Wilde [Oscar Wilde #20]slpwlxxx.xxx]1338
Jun 1998 Shelley, by Sydney Waterlow [Percy Bysshe Shelley][wshlyxxx.xxx]1337
Jun 1998 Shelley, by Francis Thompson[Percy Bysshe Shelley][tshlyxxx.xxx]1336
Jun 1998 The Ancien Regime, by Charles Kingsley[Kingsley#5][anrgmxxx.xxx]1335
Jun 1998 Paul Kelver by Jerome K. Jerome [JeromeKJerome#13][pklvrxxx.xxx]1334
Jun 1998 R F Murray: His Poems with a Memoir by Andrew Lang[rfmurxxx.xxx]1333
May 1998 Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, by J. M. Barrie 3[ppikgxxx.xxx]1332
May 1998 ABC's of Science, by Charles Oliver [abcosxxx.xxx]1331
May 1998 The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman[samboxxx.xxx]1330
May 1998 The Story of Little Black Mingo by Helen Bannerman[samboxxx.xxx]1330
May 1998 A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay [vrctrxxx.xxx]1329
May 1998 The Tinker's Wedding, by J. M. Synge [Synge #4][tnkwdxxx.xxx]1328
May 1998 Elizabeth and her German Garden, by "Elizabeth" [lzgdnxxx.xxx]1327
May 1998 The Crisis in Russia, by Arthur Ransome[Ransome#2][crrusxxx.xxx]1326
May 1998 Twenty Years At Hull House, by Jane Addams [20yhhxxx.xxx]1325
May 1998 Russia in 1919, by Arthur Ransome [Ransome #1][19rus10x.xxx]1324
May 1998 History Of The Conquest Of Peru, by Prescott [New][hcpruxxa.xxx]1323
May 1998 Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman [Walt Whitman #1][lvgrsxxx.xxx]1322
May 1998 The Wasteland, T. S. Eliot [T. S. Eliot #1] [wslndxxx.xxx]1321
May 1998 Criminal Psychology, by Hans Gross [crmsyxxx.xxx]1320
May 1998 Increasing Efficiency In Business, by W.D. Scott [ihdibxxx.xxx]1319
May 1998 The Twin Hells, by John N. Reynolds [twnhlxxx.xxx]1318
May 1998 Saltbush Bill J.P., by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson [#4][biljpxxx.xxx]1317
May 1998 Some Reminiscences, by Joseph Conrad [conrad #21][rmnisxxx.xxx]1316
May 1998 Autobiography & Selected Essays, by Thomas Huxley [asethxxx.xxx]1315
May 1998 The Malefactor, by E. Phillips Oppenheim [EPE#1][mlfctxxx.xxx]1314
May 1998 Over The Sliprails, by Henry Lawson [Lawson #4][oslipxxx.xxx]1313
May 1998 Selected Stories, by Bret Harte [Bret Harte #1][hartexxx.xxx]1312
May 1998 If, by Lord Dunsany [Edward John Plunkett] [#1][ifdunxxx.xxx]1311
May 1998 The Annals of the Parish, John Galt[THE John Galt][anaprxxx.xxx]1310
May 1998 The Spirit of Place, et. al., by Alice Meynell[#6][sptplxxx.xxx]1309
May 1998 Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous, Oscar Wilde[Collection][wldmsxxx.xxx]1308
May 1998 A Florentine Tragedy, Oscar Wilde [Wilde #19][wldmsxxx.xxx]1308
May 1998 La Sainte Courtisane, Oscar Wilde [Wilde #18][wldmsxxx.xxx]1308
May 1998 The Magic Skin, by Honore de Balzac [Balzac #12][mgcskxxx.xxx]1307
May 1998 Seven Men, by Max Beerbohm [Max Beerbohm #4] [svnmnxxx.xxx]1306
May 1998 Enoch Soames, by Max Beerbohm [A New Version] [svnmnxxx.xxx]1306
May 1998 `Savonarola' Brown, by Max Beerbohm [svnmnxxx.xxx]1306
May 1998 Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton, by Max Beerbohm[svnmnxxx.xxx]1306
May 1998 The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac[Balzac #11][blscoxxx.xxx]1305
May 1998 Project Gutenberg's Book of English Verse [Oxford][pgbevxxx.xxx]1304
May 1998 [Formerly:] The Oxford Book of English Verse [pgbevxxx.xxx]1304
May 1998 Bulchevy's Book of English Verse [pgbevxxx.xxx]1304
May 1998 The Scapegoat, by Hall Caine [scpgtxxx.xxx]1303
May 1998 Enemies of Books, by William Blades [nmybkxxx.xxx]1302
May 1998 The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle[Carlyle#5][frrevxxx.xxx]1301
May 1998 Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey [Grey #7][prpsgxxx.xxx]1300
May 1998 The Heritage of the Sioux by B. M. Bower[Bower #6][hrtsuxxx.xxx]1299
May 1998 The Virginian, Horseman Of The Plains, Owen Wister[vrgnnxxx.xxx]1298
May 1998 The Iron Puddler, by James J. Davis [tirnpxxx.xxx]1297
Again my thanks to you all!
Michael
=============================================
Michael S. Hart, Professor of Electronic Text
Benedictine University [Illinois Benedictine]
Carnegie Mellon University Visiting Scientist
Executive Director of Project Gutenberg Etext
Post Office Box 2782, Champaign IL 61825-3231
No official connection to U of Illinois--UIUC
Permanent Internet Address!!! hart@pobox.com
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