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 Independence (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1) to the computer laboratory, where he sat at the teletype terminal and typed this first eBook. He distributed it via email to the people he knew about via the Internet’s predecessor, ARPAnet, which was available at UIUC. At that moment, the first eBook had been freely distributed to the online community of the day. Digitization and production techniques, at the time of this first eBook, were /ad hoc/ and informal. A single eBook producer would edit a single file, from a single source. The first eBook’s printed source was a single sheet of paper, without hyphenation, a book cover, images, or other characteristics of book-length sources. In 1971, capitalization was not an issue, as only upper case letters were available in the character set used by the system. Figure 1: Top view of a Model 33 Teletype, salvaged from the computer laboratory where Michael Hart typed the first eBook. The paper roll was where output would be printed. [Illustration: 0002] During the next twenty years, from approximately 1971-1991, techniques of digitization would be dramatically improved, and regularized. Ongoing developments since then have tracked the available technologies for eBook creation and use, as well as preferences and interests of the many volunteers who would produce those eBooks. Throughout the history of Project Gutenberg, these techniques, while refined and clearly articulated, have remained flexible (see the Volunteers’ FAQ at https://www.gutenberg.org/help/volunteers_faq.html). EMPHASIS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN Project Gutenberg’s founder, Michael Hart, was motivated by completely free and unencumbered redistribution of literary works. Access to literary works enables literacy, which in turn opens the door to education and, it is hoped, opportunity. Interest in literary works that could be freely redistributed led to an emphasis on books and other items that are in the public domain.