[17136] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
9 Weeks to 1/3 million ebooks
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Hart)
Tue May 9 20:36:41 2006
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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.60.0605080756550.20226@pglaf.org>
Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 07:59:51 -0700
Reply-To: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@pobox.com>
From: Michael Hart <hart@PGLAF.ORG>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Press Release: Tuesday, May 9, 2006
9 Weeks To 1/3 Million eBooks In The World eBook Fair
35 Years Of eBooks
The World eBook Fair Starts Tuesday, July 4
This is the 35th Anniversary of the First Step to eLibraries
Quote:
"Project Gutenberg has taken the Internet to the next level"
Vint Cerf, Founder of the Internet
See:
http://www.gutenberg.org [Use any favorite browsers]
http://www.worldebookfair.com[Best With MS Explorer]
Contact:
Michael S. Hart <hart@pglaf.org> Phone: 217-344-6623
Founder, Project Gutenberg
*
1/3 Million eBooks Free from July 4 Through August 4
1/3 of a million books, or 10 times the number found
in the average public library, will be available for
free downloading via the Internet and World Wide Web
beginning July 4, as Project Gutenberg and the World
eBook Library act on their dreams of increased world
literacy and education.
Such a collection, if printed out in standard format
would be large enough to outweigh elephant herds and
to cover the sidelines at all 40 Super Bowl games.
Each year for one month, The World eBook Library and
Project Gutenberg will team up to be major sponsors,
planning to make ONE MILLION eBooks available in the
World eBook Fair of 2009.
"It has been our goal since the dawn of the Internet
to break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy,"
says Michael Hart, who founded the Project Gutenberg
effort by placing the first permanent text online on
July 4, 1971, 35 years ago. "Our projects are based
on the premise that everyone in the world could have
access to a free worldwide public library," for John
Guagliardo, founder of The World eBook Library, this
event marks the fruition of years of hard labor.
Over 100 languages will be represented for worldwide
readers and that total is expected to increase, even
as the preparations are underway. The books are the
permanent property of whomever downloads them, but a
warning is including to check your local copyrights,
as the books are provided under U.S. copyright laws,
and other nations have different copyrights. eBooks
still under U.S. copyright have been donated via the
permission of the copyright holders.
Project Gutenberg, perhaps the oldest Internet site,
and The World eBook Library, perhaps the largest one
of the growing number of eBook libraries, joined for
the purpose of "bringing the most eBooks to the most
people in the world."
"This is the fulfillment of a lifetime of dreams," a
sentiment shared by Greg Newby, as Project Gutenberg
CEO, he hopes his Library & Information Science PhD.
will become the last of the olde library worlde, and
perhaps the first of a new world of library science.
"We can only hope that Google, Yahoo, and the others
can also achieve their goals in the next few years--
as we hope they will each reach for a million eBooks
before the decade ends. Our own goals, with them or
without them, are to bring the world the 1/3 million
eBooks this year, 1/2 million next year, 3/4 million
in 2008, and to reach a grand total of a one million
volume World eBook Fair on July 4, 2009."
***
Additional facts and figures:
Proposed World eBook Fair totals for upcoming years:
July 4, 2006, 1/3 Million
July 4, 2007, 1/2 Million
July 4, 2008, 3/4 Million
July 4, 2009, ONE Million
*
By 2009, the terabyte [one thousand gigabytes] boxes
we have seen enter the consumer marketplace in 2006,
now priced as low as $500, will be commonplace on an
average computer on the shelf and will easily hold a
million volumes of a million characters each for the
price of just one semester's books at a university.
*
Project Gutenberg and The World eBook Library are an
example of the 501 (c) (3) corporations that operate
on a non-profit basis to improve the world.
Project Gutenberg is a fully fledged 501 (c) (3) and
completed the 5 year inaugural 501 (c) (3) period.
The World eBook Library has filed the first round of
paperwork that they hope will eventually lead to the
same 501 (c) (3) status, though they initially set a
goal of 510 (c) (6) [membership driven].
*
Project Gutenberg eBooks are all free of charge from
http://www.gutenberg.org or http://gutenberg.net.au,
the home of Project Gutenberg of Australia, and also
http://pge.rastko.net, Project Gutenberg of Europe--
these sites should total 20,000 eBooks by the launch
of The World eBook Fair.
In addition The World eBook Library sponsors Project
Gutenberg's Consortia Center where entire collection
providers around the world make many eBook libraries
available in their entirety. http://www.gutenberg.cc
This site already totals over 75,000 eBooks.
The World eBook Library, a member supported service,
offers unrestricted access to its collection of over
250,000 eBooks, documents, and articles. Individual
membership is only $8.95 a year, discounted to $1 on
a per student or FTE [full time equivalency] for the
various educational groups or institutions. An even
greater discount is available for public libraries.
For those who cannot afford a membership, or who may
be experiencing hardships, these World eBook Library
services are provided via complimentary subscription
services via Natural Disaster Relief Programs and/or
Economic Hardship Relief Subscriptions. Not one who
has ever qualified for complimentary subscription of
either of these programs has ever been denied.
The World eBook Fair effort at worldebookfair.com or
via www.gutenberg.org is a cooperative effort by the
World eBook Library Consortia and Project Gutenberg,
representing the largest and oldest eBook libraries.
1/3 of a million eBooks will be made available for a
period from July 4 to August 4 this year in honor of
the date of the first steps taken to make eLibraries
available via Project Gutenberg on July 4, 1971, the
first of the permanent "sites" on what was to become
later known as the Internet.
This celebration is to promote book awareness and to
assist in efforts to increase literacy and education
all over the world.
We hope you enjoy some of your favorite books in the
editions presented here and that you will pass those
on to others we hope will enjoy them as much as you.
Please feel free to send in requests for books to be
included in future World eBook Fairs.
*
We hope you will see fit to give this press release,
and future similar releases, your consideration, and
that you will see fit to pass them on to others.
If you have any favorite media people, encouragement
to them to use this would be wonderful!
Thank you so much!
Michael S. Hart
John Guagliardo
Gregory Newby
Visit Project Gutenberg sites at:
http://gutenberg.org ~50 languages The original PG site
http://gutenberg.net.au Project Gutenberg of Australia
http://pgdp.net Original Distributed Proofreaders Site
http://gutenberg.cc ~100 languages PG Consortia Center
http://pge.rastko.net ~65 languages PG of Europe
http://dp.rastko.net Distributed Proofreaders Europe
Visit The World eBook Library at:
http://www.netlibrary.net
http://public-library.net
*
David vs. Googliath
