Most of you have heard of Johannes Gutenberg, the father of the modern printing and inventor of the movable type printing press which revolutionized the printing and dissemination of information. With Gutenberg’s invention, translations of Arabic, Persian and other texts from Asia were made available in major European languages. The world became smaller with the mass publication of books and newspapers. Even the average person could afford to buy a book, increase his or her knowledge, and have access to information. This gave birth to public libraries. It also encouraged scientific debate across continents. Knowledge and information was not the domain of a select few but was accessible to anyone who could read. Gutenberg’s invention was probably the single most important invention in the last 1000 years.
On July 4, 1971, Michael Stern Hart, a 25-year-old American with a vision started Project Gutenberg, an library project named after the father of modern printing. Project Gutenberg or PG as it is fondly referred to, celebrated its 35th anniversary in July this year.Extract taken from;