The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002, by Jim Tinsley

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Title: The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002

Author: Jim Tinsley

Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9109] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 7, 2003]

Edition: 10

Language: English

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROJECT GUTENBERG FAQ 2002 ***

The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002

by Jim Tinsley

Important: This file is posted to the Project Gutenberg archives not as a current guide, more as a historical reference. I hope that future FAQs will be posted, as the project evolves, but this one is of its time.

If you want the most up-to-date information from PG, please see the current version of the FAQ, from the Project Gutenberg site, or, at the time of posting, at:

    http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/faq/gutfaq.txt

    or

    http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/faq/gutfaq.htm

Acknowledgements

Writing a FAQ for an organization of fanatical proofreaders has its ups and downs! I'd like to thank all those who corrected my facts and my typos, and especially the people who pointed out the lack of clarity in certain answers. The remaining errors and opacity are all mine.

Preface to the archive edition

Ironically, Project Gutenberg, which preserves the writings of others, doesn't have much written history itself. There are scraps of e-mails and guidelines, but many newsletters and other internal writings before 1996 have gone to the great bit-bucket in the sky.

The later half of the '90s marked a graceful blooming of Project Gutenberg's growth. Three related technical factors contributed: the explosion in home PCs brought standardization, which made it easy for non-techies to install scanners, which, in response to the new demand, became plentiful and cheap. And, of course, these years saw the rise in popularity of the Internet, which has always been PG's main channel of communication and distribution.

However, while PG's production expanded geometrically, at Moore's Law rates, there were barriers to participation. Most volunteers had to find an eligible book, scan or type it, and proof the resulting text all by themselves. This was and is a fairly significant amount of work: 40 painstaking hours would be a typical commitment for one book.

Beyond that, simply learning the mechanics of producing e-texts could be a serious challenge for newcomers. Nearly all internal PG communication, except for the Newsletter, was by private e-mail, and instructions had to be repeated many times to individual new volunteers, all of whom showed up with great good will, but most of whom vanished after a week or two.

Michael Hart was unstinting in his editing of incoming texts and handling questions by e-mail, but any one person has only so many hours.

The Directors of Production at the time — Sue Asscher, Dianne Bean, John Bickers and David Price — served as contact points for advice and help, made enormous efforts of production themselves, and tried to share the scanned texts among new volunteers for proofing. They made a huge contribution to building community in PG.

Pietro Di Miceli set up a web site for the project in 1996, and with the popularization of the Web (as opposed to the Internet), this became a beacon for readers and new volunteers.

All of these people reached out to willing volunteers, drew them in, helped them, encouraged them. The Project and all of the readers of the books, now and in the future, owe these people a great debt. Without them, Project Gutenberg could not have achieved what it has. But still, for the most part, each volunteer worked alone.

In 1999, I wrote, in response to an offer to volunteer:

I think I can best answer your offer, and many others like it, by giving an extended description of what actually happens in the making of PG texts, and why it's often not easy to get started.

There is no agenda, no master list of tasks ready to be given to volunteers. This is often the hardest thing to get across to new volunteers. I know I waited quite a while after volunteering for someone to give me a job to do before I realized it.

    Exactly five steps are normally performed in the publishing of

    an e-text.

    1. Someone, somewhere gets a public-domain copy of a text they

       want to contribute.

    2. That volunteer confirms its PD status by sending TP&V to

       Michael, and getting copyright clearance.

    3. Someone, usually the same volunteer, scans and corrects the

       text, or, if skilled in typing, types the book into an e-text.

    4. Someone, often a different volunteer, second-proofs the

       e-text, removing the smaller errors.

5. The e-text is sent to Michael for posting.

There are three barriers which make it difficult for most people to contribute:

1. Getting a PD book.

    2. People without scanners and typing skills have no way of

       turning a book into an e-text.

    3. Even with a scanner, turning a book into an e-text is not

       easy or quick.

Since, generally, people who have a PD book don't just want to send it off to a stranger for scanning, the people who produce e-texts have to get over all three of these barriers. This is the bottleneck in production. It's relatively easy to get an e-text second-proofed; making it in the first place is the hardest part. You need to have a book, the means to turn it into an e-text and the time and will to do it.

After that comes second proofing. There are two problems here. One is that there may not be enough texts for all the people who want to second-proof; the other is that a lot of beginners just abandon texts given to them for second-proofing, which holds up the process and is discouraging for others. So a lot of volunteers do their own second-proofing or send their texts to established contacts with a track record of finishing the job, rather than making them available to newbies. The Directors of Production do serve as contact points, and at any given moment may have some texts for proofing, but they can only distribute the texts that have already been made.

With that explanation out of the way, I can better address your question of what you can do.

Second-proofing is an easy way to start, but material isn't just waiting for you. If you want to look for some, post your offer here and wait a week or so. If no takers by then, e-mail Michael and ask if there are any texts available; he may be able to refer you to a Director of Production who has something current. You may not get an e-text immediately, but you will get one. Of course, you can also look here for offers of e-texts ready to proof.

Your other option is to take on a book yourself. In your case, you already have a scanner, so you are equipped to become a producer. You need to find a PD book.

Getting PD books means finding and borrowing or buying them. You can do this through used bookshops, libraries or book sites on the Internet. I mention a few net sites in the FAQ in the link below. I get all my books through them, since they make it easy for me to find the books I want. Prices range from $5 up to (in my case) about $30.

The best advice I can offer here is: pick a book that you want to contribute, and a book you'll enjoy working with—you'll be living with it up close and personal for quite a while.

In March and April of 1999, Pietro created the PG Volunteers' WWWBoard and Greg Newby set up the mailing list gutvol-d, and, for the first time, volunteers who hadn't been introduced to each other by Michael or the Directors could meet online and communicate directly. A few FAQs and HOWTOs were written, covering the basics, the nitty-gritty of producing books. All of this activity made it much easier for people to get involved, and the Project experienced a new influx of interested volunteers. Improved OCR software was also a factor at this time: in response to the commoditization of scanners, there was rapid improvement in the quality of OCR, and better OCR made for easier production of e-texts. More work was shared out in co-operative proofing experiments.

It was in this new, expansive atmosphere, with ideas flooding in from enthusiasts newly energized by the project, that Charles Franks (Charlz) came up with the idea of a web site that would serve to distribute the work of proofing a book among many volunteers. But not only did he think of the concept; he went ahead and did it!

In April 2000, Charlz first requested comments on his idea in a post on the Volunteers' WWWBoard, and by the end of September, the first e-texts were queueing up on the production line.

On October 9th, Charlz wrote:

Number of pages proofed by date:

2nd 6 3rd 6 4th 20 <— Newsletter 5th 27 6th 25 7th 29 8th 30 9th 45!! (and the day ain't over yet)

(The Newsletter is a reference to the site being mentioned in the PG Newsletter on October 4th, 2000).

Distributed Proofreaders, or DP, simply kept growing from there, as Charlz kept scanning and adding more books and features and proofers, and its simple organic growth produced 600 e-texts in two years, but when Charlz asked for more help on Slashdot, a popular technical news site, on November 8th, 2002, the response blew the roof off! The pages per day figure jumped from 1,000 to about 10,000 for a while, then settled down at its current 4,000. 4,000 pages, even given that each page is proofed twice, is a lot of pages. 2,000 produced pages per day is about five full books per day. DP has formed the backbone of PG's production ever since. Whatever the future of DP's production, its effect on shared knowledge and resources, and the communication and community it has built, ensures that Project Gutenberg will never be the same again.

I began writing this FAQ in March 2002, and was essentially finished around December 2002. It sat around, with a few tweaks here and there in response to comments, until the start of September 2003.

Today, it is a useful guide to Project Gutenberg norms and practices. By the time you read it, it may be ancient history (Hey, Grandad, did you REALLY scan things from paper? Why didn't you use your brain implant? :-) But it is one record of How Things Were in Project Gutenberg during this time of change.

jim September 7th, 2003.

Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002

I have a question not answered in this FAQ. How do I ask it?

If it's about how to produce a text, the Volunteers' Board at is generally the best place to ask.

If it's a question of active interest to the general body of volunteers, you can ask it on the gutvol-d mailing list. See for joining it.

For other questions, you should check our Contact Information page at and e-mail the appropriate person.

About Project Gutenberg:

G.1. What is Project Gutenberg?

G.2. Where did Project Gutenberg come from?

G.3. What has Project Gutenberg achieved?

G.4. Who runs Project Gutenberg?

G.5. How many people are in Project Gutenberg?

G.6. How can I contact Project Gutenberg?

G.7. How can I help Project Gutenberg?

G.8. How can I keep in touch with what Project Gutenberg is doing?

G.9. What is the relationship between Project Gutenberg, Projekt

       Gutenberg-DE, Project Gutenberg of Australia, and Project Runeberg?

About Project Gutenberg publications:

G.10. Does Project Gutenberg publish only books?

G.11. What books does Project Gutenberg publish?

G.12. What other things does Project Gutenberg publish?

G.13. How does Project Gutenberg choose books to publish?

G.14. What languages does Project Gutenberg publish in?

G.15. Why don't you have any / many books about history, geography, science,

G.16. Why don't you have any books by Steven King, Tom Clancy,

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G.17. Why is Project Gutenberg so set on using Plain Vanilla ASCII?

Readers' FAQ

About Finding eBooks:

R.1. How can I find an eBook I'm looking for? R.2. Can I get a complete list of Project Gutenberg eBooks? R.3. How can I download a PG text that hasn't been cataloged yet? R.4. You don't have the eBook I'm looking for. Can you help me find it? R.5. Where else can I go to get eBooks? R.6. I see some eBooks in several places on the Net. Do different people really re-create the same eBooks?

About Using the Web Site:

R.7. Why couldn't I reach your site? (or: Why is your site slow?)

R.8. I get an error when I try to download a book.

R.9. I searched for a book I know is in Project Gutenberg, but got no

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R.10. Can I copy your website, or your website materials?

R.11. Your site doesn't look right in my browser.

       I clicked on a button, and nothing happened.

R.12. What does that thing about Select FTP Site mean?

R.13. What exactly is an FTP site anyway?

R.14. Can I become an FTP mirror?

R.15. Can I make a private FTP mirror for my school, library or

       organization?

R.16. When I clicked on the file I want, nothing happened.

R.17. How many texts are downloaded through the web site?

R.18. What are the most popular books?

About Downloading and Using Project Gutenberg eBooks:

R.19. Should I download a ZIP or a TXT file? R.20. I've got a ZIP file. What do I do with it? R.21. I tried to unzip my file, but it said the file was corrupt, or damaged. R.22. I see gibberish onscreen when I click on a book. R.23. Can I download and read your books? R.24. What am I allowed to do with the books I download? R.25. Does Project Gutenberg know who downloads their books? R.26. I've found some obvious typos in a Project Gutenberg text. How should I report them? R.27. I've found some obvious typos in a Project Gutenberg text. Who should I report them to? R.28. I've reported some typos. What will happen next? R.29. I've got the text file, and I can read it, but it seems to be double-spaced or it has control characters like ^J or ^M at the end of every line. R.30. When I print out the text file, each line runs over the edge of the page and looks bad. R.31. I can read the text file, but a few characters appear as black squares, or gibberish. R.32. Can I get a handheld device for reading PG texts? Which device should I get? R.33. How can I read a PG eBook on my PDA (Palm, iPaq, Rocket . . .)

About the Files:

R.34. What types of files are there, and how do I read them? R.35. What do the filenames of the texts mean? R.36. What is the difference within PG between an edition and a version? R.37. What is the difference between an etext and an eBook? R.38. What are the Etext/Ebook numbers on the texts? R.39. What do the month and year on the text mean?

Copyright FAQ

C.1. What is copyright?

C.2. Does copyright differ from country to country? From state to state?

C.3. What are the copyright laws outside the U.S.?

C.4. Why does Project Gutenberg advise only on U.S. copyright issues?

C.5. I don't live in the U.S. Do these rules apply to me?

C.6. What is the public domain?

C.7. What can I do with a text that is in the public domain?

C.8. How does a book enter the public domain?

C.9. How does a copyright lapse?

C.10. What books are in the public domain?

C.11. My book says that it's Copyright 1894. Is it in the public domain?

C.12. How can a copyright owner release a work into the public domain?

C.13. When is an author not the owner of a copyright on his or her works?

C.14. What does Project Gutenberg mean by eligible?

C.15. I have a manuscript from 1900. Is it eligible?

C.16. How come my paper book of Shakespeare says it's Copyright 1988?

C.17. What makes a new copyright?

C.18. I have a 1990 book that I know was originally written in 1840,

       but the publisher is claiming a new copyright. What should I do?

C.19. I have a 1990 reprint of an 1831 original. Is it eligible?

C.20. I have a text that I know was based on a pre-1923 book, but I

       don't have the title page. Can I submit it to PG?

C.21. How does Project Gutenberg clear books for copyright?

C.22. I want to produce a particular book. Will it be copyright cleared?

C.23. I have some extra material (images, introduction, preface, missing

       chapter) that should go into an existing PG text. Do I have to

       copyright-clear my edition before submitting it?

C.24. I see some Project Gutenberg eBooks that are copyrighted. What's

       up with that?

C.25. What are non-renewed books?

C.26. How can I get Project Gutenberg to clear a non-renewed book?

Volunteers' FAQ

About the Basics:

V.1. How do I get started as a Project Gutenberg volunteer?

V.2. What experience do I need to produce or proof a text?

V.3. How do I produce a text?

V.4. Do I need any special equipment?

V.5. Do I need to be able to program?

V.6. I am a programmer, and I would like to help by programming.

V.7. What does a Gutenberg volunteer actually do?

V.8. Can I produce a book in my own language?

V.9. Does it have to be a book? Can I produce pieces from a magazine

       or other periodical?

V.10. Do I have to produce in plain ASCII text?

V.11. Where do I sign up as a volunteer?

V.12. How do PG volunteers communicate, keep in touch, or co-ordinate work?

V.13. Where can I find a list of books that need proofing?

V.14. Is there a list of books that Project Gutenberg wants?

V.15. I have one book I'd like to contribute. Can I do just that without

       signing up?

About production:

V.16. How does a text get produced?

V.17. How long must a text be to qualify for PG?

V.18. What books are eligible?

V.19. Are reprints or facsimiles eligible?

V.20. What is the difference between a reprint and a facsimile?

V.21. What is the difference between a reprint and a new edition?

V.22. What book should I work on?

V.23. I have a book in mind, but I don't have an eligible copy.

V.24. Where can I find an eligible book?

V.25. What is TP&V?

V.26. What is Posting?

V.27. I think I've found an eligible book that I'd like to work on.

       What do I do next?

V.28. What books are currently being worked on?

V.29. How do I find out if my book is already on-line somewhere?

V.30. My book is not on the In-Progress list, and I can't find it on-line.

V.31. My book is on-line, but not in Project Gutenberg. What should I do?

V.32. My book is already on-line in Project Gutenberg, but my printed book

       is different from the version already archived. Can I add my version?

V.33. I see a book that was being worked on three years ago. Is anyone still

       working on it?

V.34. I've decided which book to produce. How do I tell PG

       I'm working on it?

V.35. I have a two- or three-volume set. Should I submit them as one text,

       or one text for each volume?

V.36. I have one physical book, with multiple works in it (like a

       collection of plays). Should I submit each text separately?

V.37. How do I get copyright clearance?

V.38. I have a two- or three-volume set. Do I have to get a separate

       clearance on each physical book?

V.39. I have one physical book, with multiple works in it (like a

       collection of plays). Do I have to get a separate clearance

       for each work?

V.40. Who will check up on my progress? When?

V.41. How long should it take me to complete a book?

V.42. I want/don't want my name published on my e-text

V.43. I'd like to put a copy of my finished e-text, or another

       Gutenberg text, on my own web page.

V.44. I've scanned, edited and proofed my text. How do I find someone

       to second-proof it?

V.45. I've gone over and over my text. I can't find any more errors,

       and I'm sick of looking at it. What should I do now?

V.46. Where and how can I send my text for posting?

V.47. What is the Credits Line?

V.48. How soon after I send it will my text be posted?

V.49. I found a problem with my posted text. What do I do?

V.50. Someone has e-mailed me about my posted text, pointing out errors.

V.51. Someone has e-mailed me about my posted text, thanking me.

About Proofing:

V.52. What role does proofing play in Project Gutenberg?

V.53. What is Distributed Proofing?

V.54. What do I need to proof an e-text?

V.55. Do I need to have a paper copy of the book I'm proofing?

V.56. What's the difference between first proof and second proof?

V.57. What do I do with an e-text sent to me for proofing?

V.58. What kinds of errors will I have to correct?

V.59. How long does it take to proof an e-text?

V.60. Are there any special techniques for proofing?

V.61. What actually happens during a proof?

About Net searching:

V.62. I've found an eligible text elsewhere on the Net, but it's not

       in the PG archives. Can I just submit it to PG?

V.63. I've found an eligible text elsewhere on the Net, but it's not

       in the PG archives. Why should I submit it to PG?

V.64. I have already scanned or typed a book; it's on my web site.

       How can I get it included in the Gutenberg archives?

V.65. I have already scanned or typed a book; it's on my web site.

       The world can already access it. Why should I add it to the

       Gutenberg archives?

V.66. I have already scanned or typed a book, but it's not in plain text

       format. Can I submit it to PG?

About author-submitted eBooks:

V.67. I've written a book. Will PG publish it?

V.68. I have translated a classic book from one language to another.

       Will PG publish my translation?

V.69. OK, this is one of the cases where PG will publish it.

       What do I do next?

V.70. I hold the copyright on a book. Can I release it to the public domain?

V.71. I hold the copyright on a book. Do I have to release the book

       into the public domain for Project Gutenberg to publish it?

V.72. I hold the copyright on a book, and would like Project Gutenberg

       to publish it. Can I choose what rights to assign?

About what goes into the texts:

V.73. Why does PG format texts the way it does?

About the characters you use:

V.74. What characters can I use?

V.75. What is ASCII?

V.76. So what is ISO-8859? What is Codepage 437? What is Codepage 1252?

       What is MacRoman?

V.77. What is Unicode?

V.78. What is Big-5?

V.79. What are 8-bit and 7-bit texts?

V.80. I have an English text with some quotations from a language that

       needs accents—what should I do about the accents?

V.81. I have some Greek quotations in my book. How can I handle them?

V.82. I want to produce a book in a language like Spanish or French

       with accented characters. What should I do?

About the formatting of a text file:

V.83. How long should I make my lines of text?

V.84. Why should I break lines at all? Why not make the text as one

       line per paragraph, and let the reader wrap it?

V.85. Why use a CR/LF at end of line?

V.86. One space or two at the end of a sentence?

V.87. How do I indicate paragraphs?

V.88. Should I indent the start of every paragraph?

V.89. Are there any places where I should indent text?

V.90. Can I use tabs (the TAB key) to indent?

V.91. How should I treat dashes (hyphens) between words?

V.92. How should I treat dashes replacing letters?

V.93. What about hyphens at end of line?

V.94. What should I do with italics?

V.95. Yes, but I have a long passage of my book in italics! I can't

       really CAPITALIZE or otherwise /mark/ all that text, can I?

V.96. Should I capitalize the first word in each chapter?

V.97. What is a Transcriber's Note? When should I add one?

V.98. Should I keep page numbers in the e-text?

V.99. In the exceptional cases where I keep page numbers, how should

       I format them?

V.100. Should I keep Tables of Contents?

V.101. Should I keep Indexes and Glossaries?

V.102. How do I handle a break from one scene to another, where the

       book uses blank lines, or a row of asterisks?

V.103. How should I treat footnotes?

V.104. My book leaves a space before punctuation like semicolons,

       question marks, exclamation marks and quotes. Should I do

       the same?

V.105. My book leaves a space in the middle of contracted words like

       do n't, we 'll and he 's. Should I do the same?

V.106. How should I handle tables?

V.107. How should I format letters or journal entries?

V.108. What can I do with the British pound sign?

V.109. What can I do with the degree symbol?

V.110. How should I handle . . . ellipses?

V.111. How should I handle chapter and section headings?

V.112. My book has advertisements at the end. Should I keep them?

V.113. Can I keep Lists of Illustrations, even when producing a

       plain text file?

V.114. Can I include the captions of Illustrations, even when producing

       a plain text file?

V.115. Can I include images with my text file?

About formatting poetry:

V.116. I'm producing a book of poetry. How should I format it?

V.117. I'm producing a novel with some short quotations from poems.

About formatting plays:

V.118. How should I format Act and Scene headings?

V.119. How should I format stage directions?

V.120. How should I format blank verse?

About some typical formatting issues:

V.121. Sample 1: Typical formatting issues of a novel.

V.122. Sample 2: Typical formatting issues of non-fiction

V.123. Sample 3: Typical formatting issues of poetry

V.124. Sample 4: Typical formatting issues of plays

About problems with the printed books:

V.125. I found some distasteful or offensive passages in a book I'm

       producing. Should I omit them?

V.126. Some paragraphs in my book, where a character is speaking,

       have quotes at the start, but not at the end. Should I close

       those quotes?

V.127. The spelling in my book is British English (colour, centre).

       Should I change these to American spellings?

V.128. I'm nearly sure that some words in my printed book are typos.

       Should I change them?

V.129. Having investigated what looks like a typo, I find it isn't.

       Do I need to do anything?

V.130. Aarrgh! Some pages are