Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg (often abbreviated as PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive, and distribute cultural works. It is the oldest digital library, with the majority of the items it provides being full texts of public domain books.

Ideals

In 2004, Michael Hart stated that:

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:The mission of Project Gutenberg is simple: "To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." http://www.gutenberg.org/about/faq0

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To that end, the project tries to make the items in its collection as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be utilized on almost any computer.

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A slogan of the project is "break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy", chosen because the project hopes to continue the work of spreading public literacy and appreciation for the literary heritage that public libraries began in the early 20th century.

Related Topics:
Literacy - Public libraries - 20th century

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Project Gutenberg is intentionally a very decentralized organization. For example, there is no selection policy dictating what texts are desirable to add to PG. This is determined by individual volunteers who work on what they are interested in, or have available.

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