Frequently Asked Questions | Project Gutenberg https://gutenberg.org/help/faq.

html

Menu
▾

FrequentlyQuick
Asked
search
Questions
Go!
about Project
Donation
Gutenberg
Contents

1. About Project Gutenberg

i. What is Project Gutenberg?
ii. Where did Project Gutenberg come from?
iii. Tell me about Project Gutenberg’s longevity
iv. Who runs Project Gutenberg?
v. How many people are in Project Gutenberg?
vi. How can I help Project Gutenberg?
vii. What is the relationship between Project Gutenberg, Project Gutenberg of Canada,
Project Gutenberg of Europe, Projekt Gutenberg-DE, Project Gutenberg of Australia,
and Project Runeberg?
2. About Project Gutenberg publications
i. Does Project Gutenberg publish only books?
ii. What books does Project Gutenberg publish?
iii. What other things has Project Gutenberg published in the past?
3. How does Project Gutenberg choose books to publish?
4. What languages does Project Gutenberg publish in?
5. Why don’t you have any / many books about history, geography, science, biography, etc.?
Why aren’t there any / more PG books available in French, Spanish, German, etc.?
6. Why don’t you have any books by Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Tolkien, etc.?
7. Why is Project Gutenberg so set on using plain text?

About Project Gutenberg

What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is an online library of free electronic books, or eBooks. Project Gutenberg is a
volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute literary works.

The mission of Project Gutenberg is: To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.

1 of 6 2/13/2022, 5:07 PM
Frequently Asked Questions | Project Gutenberg https://gutenberg.org/help/faq.html

Menu
Read more about Project Gutenberg in the About section. ▾

Where did Project Gutenberg come from?

Go! Donation

In 1971, Michael Hart was given $100,000,000 worth of computer time on a mainframe of the era.
Trying to figure out how to put these very expensive hours to good use, he envisaged a time when
there would be millions of connected computers, and typed in the Declaration of Independence (all in
upper case–there was no lower case available!). His idea was that everybody who had access to a
computer could have a copy of the text. Now, decades later, his copy of the Declaration of
Independence (with lower-case added!) is still available to anyone, anywhere.

During the 1970s, Michael added some more classic American texts, and through the 80s worked on
the Bible and the collected works of Shakespeare. That edition of Shakespeare was never released,
due to copyright law changes, but others followed.

Starting in 1991, Project Gutenberg began to take its current form, with many different texts and
defined production targets for new eBooks. The target for 1991 was one book per month. 1992’s
target was two books each month. This target doubled every year through 1996, when it hit 32 books
a month.

There is more history and background in the Background, History and Philosophy section.

Tell me about Project Gutenberg’s longevity

Project Gutenberg is the original, and oldest, eBook project on the Internet, founded in 1971. It is one
of the oldest online content providers in the world that is still operating.

Who runs Project Gutenberg?

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, which operates
Project Gutenberg. Dr. Gregory B. Newby is our volunteer CEO. Professor Michael Hart was our
Founder and Executive Director. Michael died in 2011, and you can read obituary and memorial
information here.

2 of 6 2/13/2022, 5:07 PM
Frequently Asked Questions | Project Gutenberg https://gutenberg.org/help/faq.html

Menu
In terms of the day-to-day production of eBooks, our volunteers run themselves. :-) They
▾produce
books, and submit them when completed. The Posting Team, known as “whitewashers” after Mark
Twain’s Tom Sawyer, checks submitted eBooks and shepherds them online.
Go! Donation
How many people are in Project Gutenberg?

Over the years, we estimate that over 10,000 people have helped Project Gutenberg, either by
submitting new eBooks, or having some other role in support of Project Gutenberg.

How can I help Project Gutenberg?

Produce a new eBook! The easiest way to get started is with Distributed Proofreaders, where you
can find a self-paced tutorial and a supportive community of volunteers.

Donate money! We’re an all-volunteer project, and we don’t have much to spend, so even a little
goes a long way. Read more about donating to Project Gutenberg.

Help improve our eBooks! If you find an error, or something missing - or perhaps you have a
suggestion for our website - please get in touch.

Spread the word! Invite your friends and colleagues to visit Project Gutenberg. When you find
something you like, share it! See the Terms of Use for details and limitations.

What is the relationship between Project Gutenberg, Project Gutenberg of

Canada, Project Gutenberg of Europe, Projekt Gutenberg-DE, Project Gutenberg
of Australia, and Project Runeberg?

Those are all entirely separate organizations. In many cases, Michael Hart gave permission for them
to use the “Project Gutenberg” name, which is a registered trademark.

These site operate within the copyright rules of their respective countries, and may have specific
focus on particular types of national works or languages.

About Project Gutenberg publications

Does Project Gutenberg publish only books?

3 of 6 2/13/2022, 5:07 PM
Frequently Asked Questions | Project Gutenberg https://gutenberg.org/help/faq.html

Yes. Menu
▾

In the past, Project Gutenberg also published other cultural works like movies and music, but the bulk
Go!
of our collection is books, and there are other online projects that Donation
do a better job with other types of
content.

For more details, see the collection development policy.

What books does Project Gutenberg publish?

Any books that meet our collection development policy, and that our volunteers want to work on.

We do not publish any books that still have copyright protection. This generally means that our texts
are taken from books published 95+ years ago. (It’s more complicated than that, as our Copyright
FAQ explains, but 95+ criterion is a good first rule-of-thumb.)

This means that you won’t find the latest bestsellers or modern computer books here. You will find
the classic books from the start of the 20th century and previous centuries, from authors like
Shakespeare, Poe, Dante, as well as well-loved favorites like the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, the Tarzan and Mars books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alice’s adventures in
Wonderland as told by Lewis Carroll, and thousands of others.

These books are chosen by our volunteers. Simply, a volunteer decides that a certain book should be
in the library, obtains the book and does the work necessary to turn it into an eBook. Most of our new
eBooks now come from Distributed Proofreaders. Historically, we had many “solo” eBook producers,
but this is less frequently seen these days.

Two websites have a description of the copyright process, and the various checks and requirements
for uploading a new eBook that has been given a copyright clearance. For copyright, see
copy.pglaf.org. For uploads and compliance checks, see upload.pglaf.org.

What other things has Project Gutenberg published in the past?

4 of 6 2/13/2022, 5:07 PM
Frequently Asked Questions | Project Gutenberg https://gutenberg.org/help/faq.html

We have published some Menu

music files, in MIDI and MUS formats. We have published the▾Human
Genome. We have published pictures of the prehistoric cave painting from the south of France. We
have published some video files and some audio files, including tracks by award-winning
singer/songwriter Janis Ian and readings from public domain
Go! books.
Donation

Now, however, we only publish literary works that were previously published. The collection
development policy has details.

How does Project Gutenberg choose books to publish?

Project Gutenberg, as such, does not choose books to publish. There is no central list of works that
volunteers are asked to work on. Individual volunteers choose and produce eBooks from printed
books according to their own tastes and values, and the availability of a suitable printed book for
digitization.

What languages does Project Gutenberg publish in?

Whatever languages we can! As above, this is decided by what languages our volunteers choose to
work with.

Why don’t you have any / many books about history, geography, science,
biography, etc.? Why aren’t there any / more PG books available in French,
Spanish, German, etc.?

If a book meets our collection development policy, and it isn’t in the library, it’s because no volunteer
has produced it yet. At the moment, we have a predominance of English language novels because
that is what most people have chosen to work on.

We’re always looking for new languages and topics, and always delighted to see people producing
them. If we don’t have enough of the types of books you would like to see, why don’t you help us out
by contributing one? If the people interested in a particular area don’t contribute, we’ll always be
short in that area.

Why don’t you have any books by Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Tolkien, etc.?

Project Gutenberg can publish only books that are in the public domain in the United States. Current
bestsellers have not yet entered the public domain.

5 of 6 2/13/2022, 5:07 PM
Frequently Asked Questions | Project Gutenberg https://gutenberg.org/help/faq.html

Menu
Why is Project Gutenberg so set on using plain text? ▾

Project Gutenberg supports and publishes many open formats, but, yes, we do want to have a plain
Go! Donation
text version of everything possible.

We’re looking at our history, and we’re planning for the long term–the very long term.

Today, plain text can be read, written, copied and printed by just about every simple text editor on
every computer in the world. This has been so for decades, and is likely to be so for the foreseeable
future. We’ve seen formats and extended character sets come and go; plain text stays with us. We
can still read Shakespeare’s First Folios, the original Gutenberg Bible, the Domesday Book, and
even the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Rosetta Stone (though we may have trouble with the language!),
but we can’t read many files made in various formats on computer media just 20 years ago.

We’re trying to build a library that will last not only decades, but centuries.

The point of putting works in the PG library is that they are copied to many, many public sites and
individual computers all over. No single disaster can destroy them; no single government can
suppress them. Long after we’re all dead and gone, when the very concept of an Internet Service
Provider is as quaint as gas streetlamps, when HTML reads like Middle English, those texts will still
be safe, copied, and available to our descendants.

The PG library is so valuable, yet free and easily portable, that even if every current PG volunteer
vanished overnight, people around the world would copy and preserve any item that is legal for them
to have in their country. For people in the US, this is 100% of the collection!

Also see the File Formats FAQ for more detailed discussion of formats.

Privacy policy About Project Gutenberg Terms of Use Contact Information Get Help

6 of 6 2/13/2022, 5:07 PM