[Language-arts] FW: free access to online books - Yahoo! News

[Graci Gillming]

Pretty amazing stuff!
One Month Only!

Groups to give free access to online books - Yahoo!
News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060602/ap_on_hi_te/books_online_2

Groups to give free access to online books
By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer Fri Jun 2, 3:47
PM ET
CHICAGO - Electronic book devotees may want to set
aside some extra screen time this summer, as two
nonprofits are preparing to provide free access to
300,000 texts online.

Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library plan to make
"a third of a million" e-books available free for a
month at the first World eBook Fair. Downloads will be
available at the fair's Web site from July 4, the 35th
anniversary of Project Gutenberg's founding, through
Aug. 4.

The majority of the books will be contributed by the
World eBook Library. It otherwise charges $8.95 a year
for access to its database of more than 250,000
e-books, documents and articles.

But the book fair won't be the last chance for
e-bookworms to devour works ranging from "Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland" to "Old Indian Legends," not
to mention dictionaries and thesauruses, without
paying for them.

Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart, who first
announced the ambitious plan a month ago, said Friday
the partners are on track to make 1 million books
available for the annual fair's one-month run in 2009,
with more appearing in subsequent years. About
100,000, he said, will be permanently available at the
handful of Project Gutenberg sites on the Internet.

"We want to give the most books to the most people,"
the 59-year-old Hart said by phone from Urbana, where
he established the project in 1971 after graduating
from the University of Illinois. "It has been our goal
since the dawn of the Internet to break down the bars
of ignorance and illiteracy."

The Gutenberg books, typed and scanned into computers
by thousands of volunteers, mostly are those that are
no longer protected by copyright. They include
fiction, nonfiction and reference books and will be
available for worldwide readers in about 100
languages.

While the commercial e-book market remains tiny, Hart
said electronic books have "caught on without getting
a lot of publicity" and are being widely read on
handheld computers, cell phones and even special
programs for use on iPods.

"These people that grew up on GameBoys - to them a
GameBoy screen is the standard size," he said. "To us
old folks, it's too small. But they don't care."

Based on fast-increasing demand, he predicted there
will be 10 million e-books available by 2020.

"I've gotten notes from people who said they would
have never, ever read Shakespeare if I hadn't put it
on the Internet," Hart said.

___

On the Net:

http://gutenberg.org

http://worldebookfair.com



Graci

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< 
Graci Gillming  
Technology Training Coordinator
Educational Service Unit 10 <http://www.esu10.org>
PO Box 850, 76 Plaza Blvd
Kearney, NE 68848
Bus: 308-865-5664 X-229
Fax: 308-233-9066
ggillmin at esu10.org

Technology is not just a tool for 21st Century students; it's the
environment in which they live. John Couch, NETA 2005