Michael Hart Builds A Digital Athenaeum

 by Mark Frauenfelder

 wired magazine -- November 1998

Michael Hart says he really doesn't have time to 

talk today, or any day before 2000, for that matter: 

"I'm doing two books right now. I'm really busy." 

"Doing" doesn't mean "writing," however: 

Hart is formatting the scanned text of 

William Osler's The Evolution of Modern Medicine and 

The Last Days of Pompeii, by Charles Bulwer Lytton, 

to add to Project Gutenberg's existing library of 

1,600 volumes. Every week, Hart's working overtime to 

meet his quota of 36 books per month and 2,000 by Y2K. 

The result will be something of a digital 

Library of Alexandria, with Hart its Demetrius.

Since 1971, when he was given extensive time on a 

Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University of Illinois's 

Materials Research Lab, Hart (with volunteer help) has 

been scanning the pages of copyright-expired books 

and uploading them for free distribution. Why? 

So people can burn up toner cartridges printing them?

"No. Nobody's going to print these books out," says Hart. 

"Twenty or 30 years from now, there's going to be 

some gizmo that kids carry around in their back pocket 

that has everything in it -- including our books, if they want." 

Actually, some of these gizmos already exist. 

So it's really no wonder Hart feels pressed for time.