Volunteers can also work independently, after contacting Project Gutenberg directly, by keying in a book they particularly like using any text editor or word processor. They can also scan it and convert it into text using OCR software, and then make corrections by comparing it with the original. In each case, someone else will proofread it. They can use ASCII and any other format. Everybody is welcome, whatever the method and whatever the format. New volunteers are most welcome too at Distributed Proofreaders (DP), Distributed Proofreaders Europe (DP Europe) and Distributed Proofreaders Canada (DPC). Any volunteer anywhere is welcome, for any language. There is a lot to do. As stated on both websites, "Remember that there is no commitment expected on this site. Proofread as often or as seldom as you like, and as many or as few pages as you like. We encourage people to do 'a page a day', but it's entirely up to you! We hope you will join us in our mission of 'preserving the literary history of the world in a freely available form for everyone to use'." 5. BECOMING MULTILINGUAL What about languages? First Project Gutenberg's books are mostly in English. As it has been based in the United States since 1971, it has focused on the English-speaking community in the country and worldwide. Multilingualism started in 1997. In October 1997, Michael Hart expressed his intention to include books in other languages. At the beginning of 1998, the catalog had a few titles in French (10 titles), German, Italian, Spanish and Latin. In July 1999, Michael wrote: "I am publishing in one new language per month right now, and will continue as long as possible." In February 2004, there were works in 25 languages. In July 2005, there were works in 42 languages, including Iroquoian, Sanskrit and the Mayan languages. The seven main languages -- with more than 50 books -- were English, French, German, Finnish, Dutch, Spanish and Chinese. In December 2006, there were books in 50 languages. They were ten main languages, the above ones plus Italian, Portuguese and Tagalog. In April 2008, there were books in 55 languages, with eleven main languages, the above ones plus Latin. Esperanto was not far with 45 books, and Swedish followed with 40 books. French is the second main language after English. On February 13, 2004, there were 181 books in French (out of a total of 11,340 books). On May 16, 2005, there were 547 books in French (out of a total of 15,505 books). The number tripled in 15 months. On July 27, 2005, there were 577 books in French (out of a total of 16,800 books). On December 16, 2006, there were 966 books in French (out of a total of 19,996 books). On April 21, 2008, there were 1,168 books in French (out of a total of 25,004 books). The number of French books is expected to rise significantly in a few years, when Project Gutenberg Europe will run at full speed.