



FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF DIGITIZING EBOOKS

PROJECT GUTENBERG’S PRACTICES

By Gregory B. Newby

CEO Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation




ABSTRACT

Project Gutenberg creates and freely distributes electronic books
(eBooks). This document offers elements of the story of Project
Gutenberg’s methods and practices for creating those eBooks, and the
surrounding procedures for making them as widely available as possible.
Project Gutenberg seeks to make the world’s great literature enjoyable
and accessible.




HISTORICAL ROOTS

The first Project Gutenberg eBook was created on July 4, 1971. Michael
S. Hart had been granted access to a powerful mainframe computer at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and realized that his
greatest impact would be by digitizing and distributing free
literature (for more history, see: The eBook is 40 (1971-2011), by
Marie Lebert, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36985).

Michael took a printed copy of the United States Declaration of
Inde