5. Run another little FoxPro utility, which checks for some thingsthat I might have missed during proof-reading.
6. Use MS Word to perform a spelling and grammar check, another 30to 60 seconds per page.
7. Run another little FoxPro utility (number 3), which inserts line breaks, then run another one (number 4) which does some more exception-checking.
8. Do my second-pass proof-read, about 2 minutes per page.
9. Combine the chapters into one big file. Run a couple more little FoxPro utilities (numbers 5 and 6) which do some final formatting, checking and analysis.
10. Send the file to Jim Tinsley, who will graciously run it through his GUTCHECK program which scans for a lot of common errors.
11. Call it an etext and send it in for posting.
My primary goal is to produce a quality etext - I don't particularly care about trying to speed things up. I mean, I don't want to needlessly waste a lot of time, but I look at this as a hobby and I enjoy working on it, so I don't get out my stop watch to see if I can get 20 pages done faster today than yesterday. (When I go out running, then I'm concerned about whether I'm faster today than yesterday.) I generally put in maybe 5 hours a week on PG - actually, it's often easier for me to fit in some PG work on weekday evenings than on the weekend. And it is definitely gratifying when the etext is done and not only does it get posted on PG, but then links and copies pop up in different places like the "Online Books Page", and DMOZ.org, and Blackmask.com and Bookshare.org.
I have not encountered any real stumbling blocks so far. There were a few things that took some time to figure out. For example, when my first etext was ready, I was pretty sure that it was expected that I would put the PG header on myself, but I looked all over the web site and could not find a "master" copy. (Actually, I think the master, such as it was/is, is available on Lyris, but I was not subscribing to Lyris then.) So I just pulled the header from a very-recently posted etext, but then after I sent the etext in it was posted with a different header anyway. (Nowadays, my understanding is that the PG "staff" prefers to put the header on.) I also spent some time researching 8-bit code pages, but I expect that the new big-FAQ will provide easy access to all the answers that I had to hunt down then. There's a lot of good information buried in past messages on the volunteers' board, but no good way to search out information on a particular topic.
So far I've been able to fill all my book needs without spending much money. I find my books through ABEbooks, or from Ebay, plus I've gotten a few at Ohio Book Store downtown on Main Street. I've rarely paid as much as $20 for a book, even including shipping. There's one book that I've purchased (but not yet started work on) which costs $1000 or more for the original edition, but which is also available in paperback reprints for about $10. There are some other books in my future plans which look like they will be more expensive, but we'll worry about that when the time comes.
My wife still cannot understand why I spend my time scanning books, whereas my kids (and, I guess, most other people I know) seem to think it's a little eccentric but basically acceptable behavior. Personally, I definitely enjoy producing etexts and hope to keep doing so for a long time. My thanks to Michael Hart, Jim Tinsley, Greg Newby, and untold others who devote so much effort to nurture the project and grease the skids for the rest of us. Long live Project Gutenberg.
Lynn Hill
I have been involved with PG since 1994, when I first began reading texts on-line during slow times at the office where I worked. (I once got into trouble with a co-worker when she found me "processing" Little Women instead of the week's payroll report.) I was surprised to find, even then, such a wide variety of material in the PG archives. I found myself re-reading favorite books from my childhood, and delighting in finding "new" ones—Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Secret Garden, Heidi, the Oz stories. They were not at all like the sugary old films I had seen on television. They were funny, heartwarming, and utterly charming. After some years as a reader of the texts, I found myself thinking, "I'd like to try this."
When I first checked out the web page for volunteers, I felt overwhelmed. There were all sorts of FAQ's, but when I read them, I was baffled by all the information about file types, fonts, and other details. I didn't even know where to get books, let alone what to do about jagged rights edges or indented lines. It was frustrating — I had all this enthusiasm but didn't know where to apply it. I dawdled for some months, then came back and turned to the PG Volunteers' message board for help.
Help came from many sources. I found someone who needed a file proofread, so I offered to read it. This worked out well, and I even found a couple of typos in it. I proofed some more files for this person, and then some for other people on the board.
After a while, I was ready to try a whole book — and from Dianne Bean came my first PG book, "The Golden Slipper" by Anna Katharine Green. When I opened the box, a stale smell floated out, and then I found a chunky book with the ugliest green cover I've ever seen on anything. The date was 1915, and the book was starting to crumble all around the edges. My first reaction was "Who would ever want to read this???" But since I had promised to do it, I dutifully started scanning and reading as I went along. The book was a collection of mystery/suspense stories about a teenage crime-stopper named Violet Strange. (I always felt as if Scooby Doo and his friends might turn up at any moment.) As I read, I began to like Violet, and to notice how different her world seemed from ours. By the time I reached the end of the book, I felt proud of myself for "saving" some good stories for the future, and ready to try another book.
My suggestion to new PG'ers is to jump in and not be shy about volunteering. PG is a big group of great people who care, but they do not know you are out there until you say something. Once you speak up, they will do anything short of triple backflips to help you.
There are many ways new folks can join in, from scavenging old books at yard sales all the way up to proofing files or scanning and typing in whole books. When you send in your first copy of title page and verso, be patient — it takes time for your copyright research to be done. This is a great time to do proofing on-line at one of the distributed proofreading web sites.
I get my books from library sales, yard sales, friends I met on the PG Volunteer board, and even from elderly neighbors who wanted to lend me favorite books they have saved. When you want old books, tell everybody you know. They may come up with a lot of eligible books you wouldn't have expected.
When you find an old book, my second piece of advice is not to be too hasty in deciding whether you want to read it or not. Old books are dated, naturally, but they can show you things about life in the past which you can't pick up from an A&E documentary. I am especially interested in the way women and children are portrayed in these old books—every woman is not necessarily a lady, and every child is not a sweet little angel. (If you haven't read Little Lord Fauntleroy, you are missing a lot of laughs.) These insights and ideas can keep you going through a lot of long dark winter evenings, and they're handy to think over when you hit the occasional dull chapter or scene.
My hardest text to do was See America First, by Orville Heistand. The author invites readers to join him on a trip from Ohio to Massachusetts, in which he visits several landmarks and historical sites and entertains you all the way with obscure poetry, proverbs, and little moral lectures about each rock and robin he encounters. I told my husband, Chris, that the author's (literally) rambling style was driving me crazy. Chris proofread some chapters for me, then commented, "Boy, you never see anybody these days have such a fun time going nowhere!"
By now, I've done nine complete texts, and have boxes of other books to do. I have found that children's books are my favorites, but I will try anything if it is clear enough to read. I don't work on PG every day, or even every week if I get too busy with other things, but I keep coming back. I find PG projects to be very relaxing, a way to use my computer and writing/proofing skills, and also a refreshing change from my daily work. It's also a great excuse and motivation to read lots of books!
Sandra Laythorpe
I first learned about Project Gutenberg from a Computer magazine, so I searched for it on the Internet, and found all these classic books I had wanted to read for years, and they were free! At that time, I read a paperback copy of The Heir of Redclyffe by Charlotte M Yonge. I thought it was a wonderful book - indeed I still think it is the best novel to come out of the nineteenth century. After reading the 'How To' files on the Gutenberg site, I thought maybe I could produce Miss Yonge's books with the equipment I had. I wrote to Michael Hart and asked him, and got a very positive reply and lots of information from him.
I jumped in the deep end! I bought a very old copy of The Heir of Redclyffe, sent the photocopies of the title pages to Michael, and sat down at the computer, learned to use my OCR facilities, and got on with it, learning by my mistakes. The Instruction files told me most of what I needed to know, and Michael gave me an introduction to David Price, an experienced Gutenberger, who would be able to help me. He has been invaluable in explaining things; I don't think I could have produced my first attempt without his guiding hand.
I buy my books off the Internet, or from local dealers. Most of Miss Yonge's work is still available from second-hand bookshops, and I am happily living in a location where they are not too scarce. I have Gutenberg colleagues, now, helping with CMY, and I post books to them snail-mail, if they can't buy them in their own countries.
I use PrimaPage OCR program; it was on the disc which came with my Primax Colorado Direct scanner, and I do the work on my PC. Before I start, I open my scanner program, and adjust the settings to take black and white photos, and the brightness to about minus 35 or 40. This is crucial, as I won't even be able toseethe page until I get it right. When I first began, it took many adjustments to get it right. There should be as few mistakes as possible on the OCR result. If the photograph is too light, the OCR reads words wrongly. If the photograph is too dark, there are shadows which create black patches on the pages. If I can't get rid of these black patches, I have to tear the pages out of the book and do them one at a time. Important: don't buy first editions!
I use the scanner to take a photograph of two pages. The photograph appears on the screen. Then I close the photograph, which my computer calls 'untitl1'. Next I open my OCR program, and search for file 'untitl1', and open that. Then I ask the program to clean it, and then I click onto the button that 'reads' the photograph and converts in from pixels into letters = Optical Character Recognition!
When I get the OCR result (which takes only a few seconds), I save the 'read' text file into my own documents, numbering the file the same as the number of the page of the book. I have created a folder called 'Gutenberg', and I save it in there in a text-only format. So I go to my Gutenberg folder, open this new file, and visually correct the mistakes. I save the finished page, create a Chapter 1 file, and save it and subsequent pages that I have prepared, to build up the whole book. After I have proofed the OCR result, I paste the finished text into a Microsoft Word document, setting the font at Courier New size 10. This sets the lines at the right length for Gutenberg. When I have finished the whole book in Word, I save it as text-with-line-breaks, to get the final text file, which I send to be posted on the Gutenberg site. I proof my work two or three times, depending on the quality of the OCR result, and do a final spelling check with MS Word. I don't ask other people to proof my texts, because Miss Yonge's idiosyncrasies are liable to get edited out, unless the proofer has the book to hand.
It took me 6 months to prepare my first text, The Heir of Redclyffe, but I can do 10 pages an hour now.
In my Gutenberg folder, I have other useful files for reference, mostly downloaded Gutenberg Instructions files. So if I need to find something out, I can look in these files—it is much easier than searching on the Internet. If I need to know something I can't find in these files, I may ask a question on the Volunteers WWW Board, although I try not to, because the answers are nearly always in the files.
I try to process 2 sheets of 16 octavo pages a day, taking about 3 or 4 hours. I do my housework & gardening in the morning, then settle down to an afternoon's happy Gutenberging :-).
When I became semi-retired, I wanted to do some voluntary work on the Internet. Coincidentally I began reading the works of Charlotte M Yonge, and discovered that most of her works are out of print now. I felt that they deserved a much wider audience, so I decided that my voluntary job would be to do just that. Miss Yonge lived in a village only a couple of miles away from me, so I had a local interest, too. On my web page, http://www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm, you will find out a little about her, and Otterbourne, the village she lived in all her life, and find links to other web sites about her.
I discovered the Charlotte M Yonge Fellowship http://www.cmyf.org.uk/ and am now in contact with other people who appreciate her work, including academics who write clever things about her. Her books are about families, their interactions with each other, and how they, in Christian terms, grow in grace. I don't think there is another writer who can write so well about families. She was a Tractarian, a Christian who, in the nineteenth century, believed that people could be influenced for good by what they read. For this reason, 20th century people found her characters too moralistic, and her prose too turgid. I think her novels are delightful, her characters lovable, and her prose is minutely descriptive. It was said about her that she was 'able to make goodness exciting'. This is a rare talent, perhaps only found in other Christian writers like John Bunyan or Charles Kingsley.
Through the Gutenberg site, Miss Yonge's works are more easily available than ever. She originally wrote for upper and middle class young women. Even though I live a century and a half later, I can recognise her characters in their 'descendants' who live around me, but I sometimes wonder what Chinese, African, or even modern American readers think of her, their own backgrounds so different from the English Victorians.
I enjoy making Gutenberg texts, the work is simple, once you know how to. I would prefer, however, to see them presented in HTML. The modern ebooks all need to be in HTML format to present nicely on their tiny pages. I believe Gutenberg is going to publish HTML files, I would like to learn how to do it. Eventually, I think Gutenberg files will be available in a format that will work on all PCs, handhelds, palms, and ebooks;—but I don't know what that format is yet, I don't think standards have even been worked out among the ebook publishers.
Finally, yes, I do find mistakes in my published texts. When I have finished all 200+ of Miss Yonge's books, I am going to go through them all for the second time, and remove the mistakes. So, my work is cut out for many years to come. . . .
Suzanne Shell
Over the past several years, I visited the Project Gutenberg website occasionally, looked at what was involved in making a significant contribution to the effort, and left after downloading a few books—PG was a project that would need to wait until I retired.
In the summer and fall of 2002, I was doing research on e-books (sources, devices, costs) for my library, and ran across Distributed Proofreaders. I discovered Blackmask.com at about this time, and also followed a link from there to Distributed Proofreaders. Serendipity! After backing away a few times, I took the plunge and registered on November 5, then began proofing. The however-many-pages-I-wanted-to-proof commitment was just right for letting me get a feel for the process, and to start me thinking of the ways I could exploit all this free labor to get the booksIwanted into PG.
I was feeling quite virtuous about proofing my 10-20 pages per day, when I visited the site on November 8, and NONE of the books I was working on were available. Also there was this perfectly absurd number listed for number of proofers having proofed at least one page (it had roughly quadrupled). I KNEW the site had been hacked. Actually the site had been slash dotted. The DP discussion forums were so active, it was hard to find time to read all the messages, questions, suggestions, and complaints; these rapidly led to new documentation and more detailed proofing guidelines. Books moved through the site so rapidly that they brought out the "hard stuff" from the bottom of the to-do stack, and were STILL desperate for content. I was a relative "veteran" after just a few days, and helped out a little by answering questions, but I was still a beginner. I had some PG dreams that DP could make reality, but I needed to learn the ropes first.
Some of my ambitions revolved around professional goals—there are some public domain titles, which, if available in electronic form, would be extremely useful to my library's patrons. There are also some standard reference books and indexes—Granger's Index to Poetry is one example—that have pre-1923 editions that could still be important resources. In order to learn what I needed to know about providing content, though, I decided to start with something less overwhelming (wanting to read it on my e-book reader was just a coincidence). I went to my bookshelves and pulled out my P. G. Wodehouse reprints. I downloaded and read the scanning and submitting FAQ from the DP site, requested and received clearance for the first book (Uneasy Money) in late December, and got to work mastering my scanner. I tried Omnipage Pro first, but decided that ABBYY Finereader Pro did a significantly better job of the OCR. I offered to be a "behind the scenes" manager for the book while it worked its way through the site, but was made an official "Project Manager" instead. Although the first frenzy following the slash dot invasion had calmed down, DP was still feeling a need for more content and more hands to manage projects.
On January 5,Uneasy Moneystarted proofing; it went through 2 rounds of proofing in less than 20 hours. I felt a like a hick marveling at a traffic light changing colors, but I sat at my PC and watched the page count go down. By this time, I had also scanned and OCR'd a couple more Wodehouse reprints and a short book of poetry. I was hooked! Juliet Sutherland and the other admins had recruited some experienced DP'ers to help train new post-processors in the job of preparing final PG texts. I was handed over to one of them. After several projects, I "graduated" and was given permission to upload my own projects. My intent was to do 3 or 4 projects a month, no more than I could handle post-processing by myself. I planned to process an occasional reference book in addition to all the Wodehouse I could get my hands on. So much for plans…
One ongoing concern of many Distributed Proofreaders was how to train new volunteers in the DP style of proofreading. (It is somewhat idiosyncratic because of the distributed nature of the process.) We were still coping with the aftereffects of the massive influx of slash dotters—quantity benefited, but quality suffered. Super7, one of the highest volume proofreaders, suggested setting aside a project without complex formatting for "Beginners" and asking that the second round proofers (all of whom should be veterans) send feedback and encouragement to the newcomers. This was tried successfully, and with a couple of variations. Since I had been planning to start running a variety of genre fiction through the site, I then volunteered to manage these as beginners' projects for as long as the supply held out. All of a sudden, starting in February 2003, the amount of time I needed to spend locating, scanning, OCR'ing and managing books increased drastically, and the amount of time I could devote to post-processing decreased. Luckily, "veterans" stepped in to answer newcomers' questions, and to serve as "Mentors" in the second round of proofing. Recently, others have provided "beginners' projects", to help keep up with the demand of a steadily increasing flow of new volunteers. These projects are also useful for helping new post-processors learn the job.
I still have some ambitious projects planned; Granger'sIndex to Poetry, the unabridged edition ofThe Golden Bough, Curtis'The North American Indian, and theBook Review Digest(volumes for 1905-1921). A couple of volumes are already waiting to be proofed, others are waiting to be scanned on the PG tabloid scanner. But, in the meantime, there are 23 new Wodehouse books in PG thanks to Distributed Proofreaders, not to mention such remnants of early 20th century popular culture asThe Sheik.
I believe that a major accomplishment of Distributed Proofreaders has been the creation of way to provide on-the-job training for PG volunteers. Steady improvement in the quantity and quality of training techniques and documentation, enhancements to the user-friendliness of the site, and ready access to the collective experience and advice of a wide range of volunteers in the Forums have resulted in a growing core of active and experienced volunteers in all the facets of e-book production. I'm sure that I could not have progressed from a total newbie to a regular PG contributor within a 5-month period without this support structure. Regular communication and collaboration with book-lovers from around the world has enriched my life. The fact that it is easier to get leave from my job than from DP, is perhaps beside the point…
Tony Adam
How did you learn about PG?
It's been so long, I don't really remember! I probably read about it on a library listserv (I'm a librarian), and since making old texts accessible has always been a concern of mine, I jumped right in.
What was your first contact like?
Great! Mike Hart has always been easy to deal with via e-mail, although we've never talked. He and the "crew du jour" directed me to the FAQ and I took it from there.
What was the first PG job you did? How did it go?
My first job might have been Henry James'Turn of the Screw(I just found a note from September 1993 on copyright clearance for it). Since in a former incarnation I was editorial assistant for theHenry James Review, I thought that would be a good start. I've always typed the files (I'm a fast typist), and I think we had few problems along the way.
How did you develop your PG experience from there?
Helter-skelter, much like my reading habits. I work at a historically black university, so getting 19th C African-American works posted is a central concern. I've doneClotelle(the first A-A American novel) and the autobiography of Henry O. Flipper, the West Point cadet, and I'm always looking for something new in that area. Somewhere along the way I got sidetracked into essays by Whittier and other U.S. poets, and I've collaborated on early American historical documents and Sir Walter Scott with a fellow PGer up in Ohio and Chinese documents with another contact in Japan. A couple of years ago, I saw that someone in San Francisco needed help with the Shakespeare Apocrypha, and that has occupied my time on and off since. It's always something!
Can you tell us about the first text you produced?
I think it wasThe Turn of the Screw, which was a good starting point—not too long, a good read, etc. Just plugging away at the text a few pages a day made the process go quickly.
Why do you spend your hours contributing to PG?
I love the idea of making all of this print knowledge available to anyone anywhere. Working in a library that has suffered budget problems over the years opened my eyes to the need for acquisition of as much free stuff as possible for our students and faculty. Besides, in a perverse way, it's fun!
Do you specialize in any particular kind of work? of texts?
I've probably focused more on plays, historical documents, and 19th C U.S. works than anything else.
What do you like about making a PG text?
Having a project come to fruition—finally seeing an almost forgotten text come to life again.
What do you dislike about making a PG text?
The work can be tedious at times, depending on the author. But sometimes you have to plow through to get something significant processed. For example, we probably should have more philosophers represented, but what a horrible thing it would be to scan Kant!
Where do you get your eligible books?
Mostly from my library's collection, although I finally purchased my own copy of the Shakespeare Apocrypha (it's very hard to find, which makes it very suitable for posting). I've interlibrary loaned some items, but that's also been unusual.
Do you type or scan? What Scanner / OCR / Editor / WP do you prefer?
I still type everything—it's easier when working with a play, I've discovered. But I'm purchasing a scanner in the very near future and will do more with that.
How do you check your text? Any special tools? spellchecker? Do you print it out and read it? Put it on your PDA and read it? Have a voice synthesis program read it aloud to you from your PC?
I usually run it through the spellchecker, although depending on the work, I read it line by line a second time.
Do you have any tips'n'tricks or special routines you go through when preparing a text?
The best thing to do is put yourself on a schedule—do a set amount of pages every day, and you'll be surprised how quickly you get to the end. I also make a pencil mark in the book at a stopping point and even read back a paragraph to double check what I last entered.
How long does it take you to make a text?
Depends on my work schedule, other assignments, time of year, etc. A play might take a couple of weeks, but a Walter Scott novel could take six months. I think my record is probably one day for an essay, but that's unusual.
Do you work alone, or do you share the work of each text? Does anyone regularly help you proof the text?
I've worked alone and on teams, depending on the text. No one regularly helps to proof the text, but occasionally someone else does.
Do you do some PG work regularly, or drift in and out as opportunity permits, or when you feel like it?
I consider myself a regular, as time permits. In other words, I haven't dropped out of the picture, but sometimes I might not enter anything for up to a month.
How many different kinds of work, or different books, have you done?
Not sure how many different books I've done, but it's been a wide variety: James' and Scott's novels, Whittier's essays, a whole collection of early American documents (mostly New Netherlands), Shakespeare (accepted canon and the apocryphal works), some odd works (The Psychology of Beautycomes to mind)—the list goes on and on. I've even forgotten that I've done some titles!
What do you like about the PG process?
That it's open-ended—if I think I have something that should be posted, I don't have to jump through hoops and ladders to get permission (other than copyright clearance).
What do you dislike about the PG process?
Can't think of anything offhand.
Is there anything you'd like to see PG doing differently?
I know it's a bone of contention, but we probably need to explore moving away from ASCII.
If one of your friends approached you to ask advice about how to get started contributing to PG, what would you tell them?
Start with something fun, that's close to your heart, and keep plugging away a little bit at a time.
What do you expect Project Gutenberg to be like in 5 years? 10 years?
We'll probably be a whole lot bigger (texts and personnel), with a different look to the texts. Maybe we'll even have more audio versions of texts, using some of the new software that's coming out.
Tonya Allen
I discovered Project Gutenberg in about 1997. After several years of enjoying PG's texts, in June of 2002 I decided it was time to start contributing. Via the PG web site I learned that the easiest way to do this would be to help out with proofreading via Charles Franks' Distributed Proofreaders web site. The day I signed on I proofed nine whole pages of a children's book calledCurly and Floppy Twistytailand felt very proud to be contributing.
At that time, there were probably only about 40 active volunteers on the site each day. Often I proofed an entire book almost all by myself over the course of a week or so. Things moved at a leisurely pace; guidelines were few and simple; and I had fun reading old books and discovering new authors.
After a few months a request was made for volunteers to post-process texts in French. I volunteered to help with this, and that was how I became a post-processor (PPer). Shortly afterwards, the web page listing texts available for post-processing and sign-out was unveiled. I remember several times checking and being disappointed because there was nothing currently available (hard to imagine now when there are always at least 40 texts waiting).
One day in November, I picked out a likely-looking text from the proofing page, and settled down for an hour of reading. As I recall, it wasThe Greek View of Life, a sizeable text of which only a few pages had been proofed so far, and which I thought would last for several days at least. At about that time, someone emailed me to say that DP had been "/.ed." "What does that mean?" I replied. I soon found out.
I had been proofing away peacefully for awhile when suddenly instead of the next page, I got a page about twenty pages further on. The same thing happened again and again, and suddenly all the pages were gone; the whole text had been completed. DP had indeed been slashdotted.
Since then, a lot of amazing things have happened. The number of active volunteers per day has increased almost 1000%. The number of texts that go through the site has increased exponentially. All kinds of proofing and processing tools have been developed. I now spend most of my time checking texts that others have PPed, and submitting them to PG, at an average rate of one to four per day—quite a leap from nine pages ofCurly and Floppy Twistytail. And I'm looking forward to everything that lies ahead as DP continues to evolve.
Walter Debeuf
Quite by chance I became aware of PG when I was surfing and looking for interesting sites. I vaguely knew the name because I had heard of the Project a long time ago. After reading the "History and Philosophy of PG", I immediately became wildly enthusiastic about it. This was what I had been looking for for years, a meaningful use of my PC, and because I am a fervent lover of good literature, I didn't hesitate to contact the founders of the Project. I made a suggestion that I should work on French and Dutch e-texts. The very same day I received an answer from PG in which they told me they were very pleased with my contribution but that I had to keep in mind that all books must be free of copyright and published before 1923.
This wasn't so great. . . . After I browsed in the "Help And FAQ" of the PG site, I read that I didn't have to worry about all that, because they are willing to do all the clearance!
On my own bookshelf I found an old book of Jules Renard, "Poil de Carotte". It seemed old enough to me, but I couldn't find any copyright notations. So, I mailed to Mr Hart all the information I found on the title page and the verso, and asked him what he thought about it. The next day I received his answer, he wrote: "We still have to prove this edition was pre-1923, so I am forwarding to our authority on such copyright research." This authority is Ms. Dianne Bean who mailed me a few days later very pleasantly that I could start typing, because the copyright issues had been resolved. She asked me to send a "TP&V" (a photocopy of the title page and verso) of the book to Mr. Hart, because they need that for legal reasons.
But something wasn't very clear to me concerning the format I had to use. In the "FAQ" they spoke about "plain vanilla ASCII", something I never had heard about in my life! In "How to Volunteer, PG Volunteers' Board" Mr. Jim Tinsley answered all kind of questions about all kinds of problems people have when they start volunteering. So I did the same and sent him my question. I received an extensive answer about all kind of formats in the "ISO 8859 Alphabet Soup" and he recommended me to use "Codepage 1252" which is very common in Windows. Here are the addresses which Jim sent to me:
"If you are interested in the differences, I recommend the excellent web page
http://czyborra.com/charsets/codepages.html
in the excellent reference site http://czyborra.com"
I chose a French book, first because I had it already on my bookshelf, and secondly because I wanted to perfect my knowledge of the French language and typing seemed the right way to do it. When copying an author's text, you are very close to it. You also have to pay full attention to the spelling of the words. Gradually you come under the spell of the story and you forget that you are typing . . . Nevertheless, it is hard work, especially when it is not your native language, and therefore you shouldn't try to rush it. At first I started with two or three pages a day, which means that you would need about two months typing for an average book. But good typists can do it more quickly.
I can only applaud the aim of PG, to put books available on the net as much as possible and without cost, for every one in the whole world. I love to co-operate with it.
In the meantime there are thousands and thousands of books in the PG-collection, and that makes it a little difficult to find other examples which are free of copyright, because they must be from before 1923. Since I've got the "PG-bug" it's a challenge for me to find suitable copies, and I look for them high and low. I can buy a few books for a song and I take them home as a trophy, looking forward to the work which is waiting for me . . .
In libraries you can find old publications which you can find nowhere else.
It's amazing how fascinating old books can be and how much you can learn from them. For the moment I'm working on "Pecheur d'Islande" by Pierre Loti, in which I get acquainted with an old tradition of fishermen, very interesting. Without PG I would probably never have read this. There must be still a lot of little treasures in some old and dusty attics, waiting to be born again by the magic touch of a PG-volunteer.
If you do it, no compensation or payment is waiting, but . . . doing something disinterested and unselfish gives you a good feeling.
Bookmarks:
B.1. Project Gutenberg:
Home Page and Search
Mailing Lists
Greek Transliteration
Music
GUTINDEX.ALL
B.2. Distributed Proofing Sites:
Charles Franks
B.3. Other On-Line eBook Pages:
The On-Line Books Page
B.4. Lists of Suggested Books to Transcribe:
PG Books In Progress
B.5. Finding Paper Books On-Line:
Advanced Book Exchange
B.6. Character Sets
Overviews