Forty-Five Years of Digitizing Ebooks: Project Gutenberg's Practices

"Forty-Five Years of Digitizing Ebooks: Project Gutenberg's Practices" by Gregory B. Newby, documents the history and methods behind Project Gutenberg, a pioneering effort to make eBooks freely available. The work explores the journey of the project, starting with its ambitious beginning of digitizing the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1971. It details the development of digitization technologies, the immense contributions of volunteers, and how copyright laws were carefully navigated. The book highlights improvements in formatting, the vital role of proofreading in guaranteeing quality, and the power of crowdsourcing. The mission of providing literature to a global audience shines as a central theme. The book chronicles and emphasizes making public domain texts available to all and explores future plans to improve user experience. This book acts as both a detailed historical record and a valuable handbook for those fascinated by digital humanities and open access movements.