ERPANET Case Study: Project Gutenberg
Chapter 9
As the first and largest collection of eBooks, Project Gutenberg has been preserving electronic publications and making them accessible for over thirty years. By adhering to strict guidelines regarding the format of the eBook (plain text) for access and readability, Project Gutenberg has also ensured that their electronic resources can be preserved and migrated easily to other formats as needed. By uploading the eBooks to two main servers and by mirroring the Project Gutenberg database on sites around the world they ensure that backup versions of the eBooks are readily available if necessary. This multi-distributed approach is similar to the preservation strategy Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe (LOCKSS) that is gaining worldwide interest. The combination of open formats and the proliferation of copies downloaded around the world should ensure that Project Gutenberg eBooks currently in existence and indeed any new eBooks created, are still accessible far into the future.
End Notes:
(1) ERPANET is a European Commission funded project (IST-2001-32706). See www.erpanet.org for more details and available products. (2) Chapters 2 and 3 are taken from 'Cross-sectoral Development of Digital Preservation Strategies: ERPANET and the Expansion of Knowledge', given at Preservation of Electronic Records. New Knowledge and Decision-making, Symposium 2003. (3) The Charter is ERPANET's statement on the principles of digital preservation. It has been drafted in order to achieve a concerted and co-ordinated effort in the area of digital preservation by all organisations and individuals that have an interest and share these concerns. http://www.erpanet.org/www/content/documents/Digitalpreservationcharterv 4_1.pdf. (4) See Appendix. We include the questionnaire to encourage comment and in the hope that other groups conducting similar research can use the ideas contained within it to foster comparability between different studies. (5) See www.erpanet.org for the composition of this committee. (6) Paid staff are financed through donations. https://www.gutenberg.org/donate (7) Radio Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/audio/ (8) Gutenberg Music https://www.gutenberg.org/music/ (9) The two main servers are located at ibiblio: the public's library and digital archive (ftp.ibiblio.org) and the Internet Archive (ftp.archive.org). (10) From an interview with Michael Hart: The Second Gutenberg http://promo.net/pg/upi_interview_05_02.html (11) http://lockss.stanford.edu/projectdescbrief.htm (12) Jefferson, Thomas. [1791] 1984. Thomas Jefferson to Ebenezer Hazard, Philadelphia, February 18, 1791. In Thomas Jefferson: Writings: Autobiography, Notes on the State of Virginia, Public and Private Papers, Addresses, Letters, edited by Merrill D. Peterson. New York: Library of America (taken from LOCKSS website http://lockss.stanford.edu/) (13) From an interview with Michael Hart: The Second Gutenberg http://promo.net/pg/upi_interview_05_02.html (14) http://promo.net/pg/history.html (15) American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) (16) From an interview with Michael Hart: The Second Gutenberg http://promo.net/pg/upi_interview_05_02.html (17) Distributed Proofreaders http://www.distributedproofreaders.net/c/default.php (18) Post-proofing FAQ http://www.distributedproofreaders.net/c/faq/post_proof.php (19) From an interview with Michael Hart: The Second Gutenberg http://promo.net/pg/upi_interview_05_02.html (20) Michael Hart quoted in Project Gutenberg Progresses by Paula J. Hane, Information Today Volume 21 No. 5 http://www.infotoday.com/it/may04/hane1.shtml (21) Project Gutenberg Progresses by Paula J. Hane in Information Today