Canville Communications: Article
On December 14, 2004, the University of Michigan announced an agreement with search engine Google under which the complete text of all seven million volumes in
U-M’s library will be turned into a computer-readable format and
made instantly searchable by anyone using the search engine.
Articles run across the country tout this effort as being the
largest such digital scanning project ever undertaken, the benefits
of which will take online searching beyond the traditional search
of web pages and their static information. However, what was not
mentioned in these articles is this exact type of project was
spearheaded many years ago by Michael Hart in 1971. His brainchild,
Project Gutenberg, is the Internet’s oldest producer of free electronic books.
Hart began his efforts in response to a huge operator’s account
he had been given by the University of Illinois–$100,000,000. The obscenely large account represented the fact
that there was more computer time than people knew what to do
with, and the operators were encouraged to do whatever they wanted
with that time in the hopes they would learn more for their job
proficiency. Hart decided the greatest contribution he could make
would not be through actual computing, but through the storage,
searching and retrieval of information stored in public libraries.
For Google’s effort with U-M, digitizing the university’s collection
is part of an effort called Google Print, in which the company is working to create digital databases
of books, reports, manuscripts and other printed materials. The
goal is for Web users accessing the search site to be able to
type in a phrase or key words and be presented with direct access
to in-depth research and literary material.
This is essentially what Project Gutenberg has been doing for
33 years through its e-texts and eBooks. The information digitized
and made available by the Project is unique in that it is available
in the simplest, easiest to use forms. 99% of the hardware and
software a person is likely to use will be able to read and search
these files. No special downloads or programs are required. And,
the information is just as easily accessible by someone using
a Mac or running UNIX as it is for someone using a PC.
In addition, the books digitized by the Project are those deemed
most likely to be researched by the general public. According
to the Project Gutenberg website, “Project Gutenberg selects etexts targeted a bit on the ‘bang
for the buck’ philosophy... we choose etexts we hope extremely
large portions of the audience will want and use frequently. We
are constantly asked to prepare etext from out of print editions
of esoteric materials, but this does not provide for usage by
the audience we have targeted, 99% of the general public.” The
Project Gutenberg eBooks are comprised of light literature, such
as Alice in Wonderland and Aesop’s Fables , heavy literature, such as religious documents and Moby Dick, and reference materials like dictionaries and almanacs. Currently,
Project Gutenberg publishes texts in 35 different languages, with
new languages joining regularly.
The Project produced over 10,000 eBooks by October 2003, making
350 new books available every month, and has mirror sites on every
continent, including Antarctica. They’ve been joined in their
efforts by Distributed Proofreaders whose site provides a web-based method of easing the proofreading
work associated with the digitization of books into e-books for
Project Gutenberg. Distributed Proofreaders has added an additional
6,200 eBooks to the Project.
Even if the national news circuit didn’t take notice of the Project’s
accomplishments when announcing the Google effort, the international
community has. In 2002, “The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation” was presented the Stockholm Challenge trophy that symbolizes their technological progress.
It may be the only real news in the U-M/Google announcement is
the use of new technology developed by Google that speeds up the
digitizing process–which they refuse to say much about. Google
also refuses to say how many people will be at the University
doing the digitizing work. Project Gutenberg utilizes existing
technology and thousands of volunteers to proofread and encourage
the creation and distribution of the free eBooks.
Google’s goal with their project has been said to be ambitious.
Google says all seven million volumes of the U-M library should
be digitized into their database sometime shortly after 2010 at
a cost of millions of dollars. In 2002, Project Gutenberg had
announced a new goal of getting one million eBook titles to one
billion people, for a total of one quadrillion eBooks to be hopefully
given away by the end of the year 2015–all for free. In perspective,
Project Gutenberg’s efforts can certainly be considered just as
ambitious as Google’s.
Karin Nead is the president of Midwest Biz Solutions, Inc. in
Belton, Missouri. Her company provides small business owners with
outsourcing options for administrative support, bookkeeping, desktop
publishing and graphic design.
“U-M’s Entire Library to be Put in Google” is an original article
by Karin Nead. Copyright 2005 by Canville Communications.
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U-M’s Entire Library to be Put in Google
