Project Gutenberg News

PG Monthly Newsletter: Pgca (2008-08-21)

Here's the news from PG Canada for July.

We published a total of 14 ebooks during the month: we have now published a
cumulative total of 152 ebooks.

The New Releases section at the top of the PGC main page always gives the
details of new releases for the most recent three months.

LANGUAGES:
- 8 titles were in English,
- 6 were in French,

GENRES
- 5 of the books were novels, including a French translation by Pamphile Le
May of William Kirby's "The Golden Dog"
- 1 was a book of short stories
- 5 were poetry, including a French translation by Pamphile Le May of
Longfellow's "Evangeline"
- 1 was a book of drawings
- 2 of the books were non-fiction

Ten of the books were by Canadians, or had a significant link to Canada.

The month was notable for the addition of six books by Pamphile Le May
(1837-1918): four original works, and two translations.

We published two new titles in progress in our series of novels by English
novelist Sheila Kaye-Smith (1887-1956).

We were very proud of this year's choice for Canada Day (July 1st).  It was a
1926 edition of "Le Chien d'Or", a translation of "The Golden Dog".  The
author, William Kirby (1817-1906), and the translator, Pamphile Le May (1837-
1918), are both celebrated names in Canadian literature, while the annotator,
Benjamin Sulte
(1841-1923) is a famous Canadian historian.

Authors and illustrators new to PGC this month included:

- Lord Dunsany [Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, eighteenth Baron Dunsany]
(1878-1957) [Irish author and playwright]
- Kirby, William (1817-1906) [Canadian novelist]
- Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882)[American poet]
- Macmillan, Cyrus John (1880-1953) [Canadian academic and politician]
- May, Phil [May, Philip William] (1864-1903) [English caricaturist]
- Munro, William Bennett (1875-1957) [Canadian historian]
- Sheringham, George (1884-1937) [English artist]
- Sulte, Benjamin (1841-1923) [Historien canadien]

***************

Thanks as ever for your support!

Mark


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pgmonthly_2008_08_21-PGCA.txt

PG Monthly Newsletter (2008-08-21)

/The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter, Aug. 21, 2008/
e-Books Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971

52 Months to The End of the World Via Mayan Calendaring!

This leaves 4 1/4 years, 17 1/3 seasons, or 52 months.

Not to worry.  I will still make predictions further on.





Requesting A Second Time


I need someone who can do PowerPoint illustrations.

One in particular, building a 3-D box of 1,000 dominoes.


In addition, I will provide the PG Canada Newsletter and totals from PG of
Australia, Europe, PrePrints, etc.

These totals do NOT include 75,000+ at:

http://www.gutenberg.cc

Where there are eBooks representing over 100 languages.


These are the various totals from the ~29,000 at:

http://www.gutenberg.org


Here is the output for the current week:

Subject: Yet Another Progress Report

       day       | cnt
----------------+-----
  Thu 2008-08-14 |  10
  Fri 2008-08-15 |   8
  Sat 2008-08-16 |  10
  Sun 2008-08-17 |   6
  Mon 2008-08-18 |  15
  Tue 2008-08-19 |  10
  Wed 2008-08-20 |  14

Thanks to Marcello Perathoner!


Here are the current language totals
for languages with over 100 eBooks.

Grand total for today: 26272

22432   English en
1217    French  fr
540     German  de
456     Finnish fi
349     Dutch   nl
320     Chinese zh
250     Portuguese      pt
197     Spanish es
153     Italian it

Thanks to Greg Newby!



Current Totals


26,272  Project Gutenberg Under US Copyright Law
  1,672  Project Gutenberg Of Australia       +22
    515  Project Gutenberg of Europe           +7
    152  *Project Gutenberg of Canada         +14 [for July]
    377  Project Gutenberg PrePrints          +00
         Note:  Books move up out of PrePrints ====== 28,988Grand Total ///
[About as many as the average public library]

eustats
preprints





PG Europe just posted their eBook #500!!!
PG Australia posted their eBook #1674 on Aug. 21, 2008 PG Canada posted their
eBook #152 in July, 2008 PG US posted their eBook #25,000 on April 20, 2008 PG
US just posted their 1200th eBook in French.
       This is more than double any other language.
Note:  There are perhaps 100 eBooks not listed here that are already in
circulation from Project Gutenberg.


Note:  PG Canada includes English, French, and Italian.



///


Here is how we ended 2007

The combined PG projects had produced a total of 26,161

titles.


The most number of books posted...
  ...in one day was 65 on the 26th December
  ...in one week was 151 in Week 18 (week ending 9th May)
  ...in one month was 477 in November

We averaged
338 per month
  78 per week
  11.13 per day

99 titles had been REposted to the new filing system,

bringing us almost to the 2,000 mark.


Here is a small selection of project milestones;

TOTAL "Original Project Gutenberg eBooks"

  * 28,000 ~~ 2008/05/16  About the number of books in
  * 27,500 on 2008/04/05  the average US public library
  * 27,000 ~~ 2008/02/29*
  * 26,500 on 2008/01/26
  * 26,000 on 2007/12/24
  * 25,000 on 2007/10/12
  * 24,000 on 2007/07/10
  * 23,000 on 2007/04/15

Under US Copyright Law
  * 25,500 ~~ 2008/05/27
  * 25,000 on 2008/03/20
  * 24,000 on 2007/12/27
  * 22,500 on 2007/09/09

PG-AU
  * 1,600 on 2008/02/08
  * 1,500 on 2007/04/07

PG Canada
  * 100 on 2008/03/25
  * 110 on 2008/04/17




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pgmonthly_2008_08_21.txt

Le Projet Gutenberg (1971-2008)

Editors Note: Marie’s essay is available in English

[Table]

SOMMAIRE

En juillet 1971, Michael Hart crée le Projet Gutenberg pour diffuser gratuitement sous forme électronique les oeuvres littéraires du domaine public. Un projet longtemps considéré par ses détracteurs comme impossible à grande échelle. Site pionnier à tous égards, le Projet Gutenberg est à la fois le premier site d’information sur un réseau encore embryonnaire et la première bibliothèque numérique. Les livres sont numérisés en mode texte (TXT) en utilisant le code ASCII (American standard code for information interchange). Lorsque l’utilisation du web se généralise, au milieu des années 1990, le projet trouve un second souffle et un rayonnement international. Les collections atteignent 1.000 livres en août 1997, 2.000 livres en mai 1999, 3.000 livres en décembre 2000, 4.000 livres en octobre 2001, 5.000 livres en avril 2002, 10.000 livres en octobre 2003, 15.000 livres en janvier 2005, 20.000 livres en décembre 2006 et 25.000 livres en avril 2008, dans 55 langues, avec 340 nouveaux livres par mois, 340 sites miroirs dans de nombreux pays, plusieurs dizaines de milliers de téléchargements par jour et des milliers de volontaires de par le monde. En octobre 2001, la principale source des livres devient Distributed Proofreaders, mis sur pied par Charles Franks pour gérer la correction partagée entre volontaires. D’abord essentiellement anglophones, le Projet Gutenberg s’internationalise et les collections deviennent multilingues. Le Projet Gutenberg Europe est lancé en janvier 2004 par le Projet Rastko, basé à Belgrade, en Serbie. Suivent le Project Gutenberg Canada et bien d’autres.

Read more…

ECTACO jetBook eBook Reader

ECTACO jetBook eBook ReaderECTACO are probably better know for their electronic hand held translators, but now they gone and released their very own reader; the jetBook eBook Reader.

The jetBook does not use an E-Ink screen, however, this does give it an advantage over all the other eBook readers that are currently out there; a crisp and very white screen! One of the issues people have with the current E-Ink (and VixPlex) standard is that the page contrast is not high enough – usually with E-Ink screens you have a light gray background displaying dark gray text, making low light reading a challenge.

Well, if you think this will be an issue then perhaps you would be better suited to a jetBook. These use a reflective monochrome LCD screen so that the background is nice and white, allowing the text to be read much easier.

[The jetBook has] an easy to scan high-resolution 5-inch display and a viewing angle close to 180°, it is fully customizable. Even readers who have difficulty seeing print books will benefit from its adjustable text size and font face. And weighing in at only 7.5 ounces, this handy device fits perfectly into the palm of your hand.

They go on to say that this “revolutionary display reflects light without the need for backlighting”, which according to reviews gives a similar reading experience to an E-Ink screen.

For me however, the most impressive feature of the jetBook is its ability to search and cross-reference the text using bookmarks making it a great choice for dictionaries – I’m not sure if this means you can do a word lookup from within a book. I’ll try to find out and post an update.

Read more…

PG Australia celebrates their 7th Birthday!

In Australia it is now 1st August 2008 and Project Gutenberg Australia is celebrating its seventh birthday!

In August 2001 Project Gutenberg Australia posted their first book online, “Animal Farm” by George Orwell – they now have over 1600 titles available for download. Project Gutenbereg (U.S.) only posted their 1,600th title in June 1998 – that’s 20 years longer that it has taken PGA!

Read more…

Las tecnologías y el libro para todos

Traducido por Anna Alvarez y Marie Lebert

ÍNDICE

Introducción Cronología 1968: ASCII 1971: Proyecto Gutenberg 1974: Internet 1990: Web 1991: Unicode 1993: Online Books Page 1993: PDF 1994: Consorcio W3C 1995: Amazon.com 1996: Internet Archive 1996: Palm Pilot 1997: Open eBook 1999: Bibliotecarios digitales 1999: Web multilingüe 2000: Mobipocket 2000: Public Library of Science 2000: Distributed Proofreaders 2000: Biblia de Gutenberg 2001: Wikipedia 2003: MIT OpenCourseWare 2004: Proyecto Gutenberg Europa 2005: Google Print / Book Search 2005: Open Content Alliance 2006: Microsoft Live Search Books 2006: WorldCat 2007: Citizendium 2007: Encyclopedia of Life

INTRODUCCIÓN

Somos muchos los que soñamos con una biblioteca digital universal de libre acceso – es decir accesible desde cualquier navegadora y en cualquier momento. Gracias al Proyecto Gutenberg, al Internet Archive y a otros proyectos, el sueño empieza a hacerse realidad, al menos para los libros del dominio público.

Este proceso empezó hace tiempo gracias a los esfuerzos de algunos precursores. El “libro para todos” nació con el Proyecto Gutenberg, creado por Michael Hart en julio de 1971. El objetivo era utilizar las “nuevas tecnologías” para difundir gratuitamente bajo forma electrónica las obras literarias que pertenecían al dominio público.

Read more…

Waterstones: first to sell Sony Reader in the UK

Waterstones UK Book ShopGreat news for all us UK based eBook lovers. Sony are finally releasing their Reader Digital Book (PRS-505) to the UK market!

Sony have partnered with the UK book store Waterstones, who will start selling the Reader from 3rd September 2008 for £199 – available for Pre-Order (see below). This costs a little more than the U.S. version, which sells for $299 (approx. £150). Now we are seeing eBook readers entering the high street let’s hope the prices will start tumbling.

Read more…

Stanza eBook reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch

UPDATE: Stanza is no longer maintained so I’d recommend you try out Bluefire Reader. Checkout my iPhone review or iPad review over on epubBooks for some more information on reading EPUB books on the iPhone with Blurefire and other apps.

If you are looking for a free eBook reader for your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch then you might want to try the new Stanza reader from Lexcycle.

Read more…

World eBook Fair 2008 starts today!

World eBook Fair LogoA Million Plus Books Free for the Taking!

July 4 2008

The Third Annual World eBook Fair Starts July 4th.

“Own Your Own Library” is the theme of this year’s World eBook Fair.

Starting July 4th you will be able to do just that in an unprecedented opportunity to download books in the widest variety ever available.

Visit www.worldebookfair.org to get started.

Project Gutenberg and partner sponsors encourage readers to create the “personal library” of their choice in a “personal computer.”  Most of the fair’s electronic books are free of charge, and an additional 160,000 or more have coupon or discount purchases available during the month.

All possible types of electronic books, or eBooks, are available:

Read more…

PG Monthly Newsletter (2008-07-04)

/The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter, Jul. 04, 2008/
e-Books Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971


A Million Plus Books Free for the Taking!

July 4 2008

The Third Annual World eBook Fair Starts July 4th.
"Own Your Own Library" is the theme of this year's World eBook Fair.

Starting July 4th you will be able to do just that in an unprecedented opportunity to download books in the widest variety ever available.

Visit www.worldebookfair.org to get started.

Project Gutenberg and partner sponsors encourage readers to create the "personal library" of their choice in a "personal computer."  Most of the fair's electronic books are free of charge, and an additional 160,000 or more have coupon or discount purchases available during the month.

All possible types of electronic books, or eBooks, are available:

  eBooks in over 100 Different Languages!
  eBooks designed for cell phones!
  eBooks designed for Adobe readers!
  eBooks designed for plain text readers!
  eBooks out loud in theatrical performances!
  eBooks that your computer can read aloud to you!
  eBooks that can be easily quoted in school papers!
  160,000 eBooks in brand new commercial editions!!!
  Music, movies, etc. are also included. . . .


Highlights of the World eBook Fair

Just two years ago The First World eBook Fair came on the scene with about 1/3 million books, doubled to 2/3 million in 2007, and now over one million.

Created by contributions from 100+ eLibraries from around the world, here are the largest collections

As of press date of midnight Central Daylight Time July 1, 2008 these were the approximate numbers:



  ~100,000+ from Project Gutenberg
  ~500,000+ from The World Public Library
  ~450,000  from The Internet Archive
  ~160,000  from eBooks About Everything
----------
~1,210,000+ Grand Total as of July 1, 2008


The Internet Archive will add about 1,000 books on each business day, along with various additions by the other contributors during World eBook Fair.
Thus the final grand total may be over 1,230,000


Contact information:

If you have any questions, or seek further materials, an interview or would like to confirm the schedule or contents please feel free to contact any of the following:

Michael S. Hart
Founder, Project Gutenberg
405 W. Elm, Urbana, IL 61801
hart@pglaf.org
hart@pobox.com
US Phone  217-344-6623
Cellphone 808-295-0615

Gregory B. Newby
CEO, Project Gutenberg
gbnewby@pglaf.org
US Phone 907-450-8663
http://www.gutenberg.org

John Guagliardo
Founder, World Public Library
Honolulu, Hawaii
john@gutenberg.cc
US Phone 808-292-2068
http://www.worldpubliclibrary.org

Catherine Hodge
eBooks About Everything
info@ebooksabouteverything.com
US Phone 760-327-5100
http://ebooksabouteverything.com

The Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/texts

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pgmonthly_2008_07_04.txt