PT1b Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
pt1b3.606 Weekly_June_28.txt ***The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 28, 2006 PT1*** *******eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since July 4, 1971******** ***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements General Catalog of Old Books and Authors http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ngcoba/ngcoba.htm which now indexes 24,000 books available free online, including all PG(US) & PG(Aus)'s books, along with some basic date information about them and their authors where you can find more. Plus many books not available on line, a good place to search for books by specific authors who you are interested in. For information please contact Philip Harper <webmaster AT kingkong.demon.co.uk> * We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections of the Internet Archive for potential Project Gutenberg eBooks. http://www.archive.org Don't worry, many of the numbers listed are out of date, but you should get all the files when you pass through to the original sites. Click on "texts" to get started, feel free to pick up any of the eBooks you would like to work on. Many Thanks To Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive! * Please visit and test our newest site: "PROJECT GUTENBERG EUROPE" http://pge.rastko.net [Project Gutenberg Europe] http://dp.rastko.net [Distributed Proofreaders Europe] * There is an experimental online reader available. Start from any bibliographic record page, e.g. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4300 Basically this paginates the .txt file and remembers your last position in a cookie so you can later resume reading where you left off. Please test it. 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We have regular need for intellectual property legal advice (both US and international) and other areas. Please email Project Gutenberg's CEO, Greg Newby <gbnewby AT pglaf.org> , if you can help. This is much more important than many of us realize! ***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders In the first 05.75 months of this year, PG produced 1,954 new eBooks. It took us from Jul 1971 to Nov 1999 to produce our first 1,954 eBooks! That's 25 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 Years!!! 108 New eBooks This Week 103 New eBooks Last Week 374 New eBooks This Month [Jun] 336 Average Per Month in 2006 266 Average Per Month in 2005 Counting 216 PGEu 248 Average Per Month in 2005 Not Counting PGEu 336 Average Per Month in 2004 355 Average Per Month in 2003 203 Average Per Month in 2002 103 Average Per Month in 2001 1954 New eBooks in 2006 3186 New eBooks in 2005 Counting 216 PGeu > 2970 New eBooks in 2005 Not Counting PGEu 4049 New eBooks in 2004 4164 New eBooks in 2003 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 ==== 17,034 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001 That's Only 65.75 Months! ~259 books per month! 20,102 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks [Auto-count] 16,559 eBooks This Week Last Year ==== 3,543 New eBooks In Last 12 Months [Incl. PGAu, PGEu & PrePrints] 741 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia [This does NOT include PGAu eBooks posted at the U.S. site: www.gutenberg.org ] 326 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Europe 1,067 Total from PG Australia and PG Europe [Not counting books ok in US copyright] 368 Items in Project Gutenberg PrePrints ~75,000+ Project Gutenberg Consortia Center http://www.gutenberg.cc You may also want to look at Project Runeberg [Scandinavian] http://runeberg.org * Project Gutenberg began operation on July 4, 1971 Project Runeberg began operation on December 13, 1992 Distributed Proofreaders began October 22, 2000 [Became an official PG-US site in 2002] Project Gutenberg of Australia began in August, 2001 The Project Gutenberg Consortia Center started in 1997] [Became an official PG-US site in 2003] Project Gutenberg of Europe started January 12, 2004 [Posted first books February 26, when we met in Brussels to address people at the European Union Parliament. Project Gutenberg PrePrints Started January 25, 2006 http://preprints.readingroo.ms * PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE: Since starting production in October 2000, Distributed Proofreaders has contributed 8,649 Books to Project Gutenberg. 42 added this week. For more complete DP statistics, visit: http://www.pgdp.net/c/stats/stats_central.php * Check out our website at www.gutenberg.org, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalog. eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists. Info on subscribing to daily, weekly, monthly Newsletters, listservs: http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/subscribe-howto or http://www.gutenberg.org/subs.shtml *** *Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report The PGCC collection at http://www.gutenberg.cc has doubled in size from the listings below, but we don't have exactly matching collection sizes yet for a new breakdown. The number of individual eBooks now exceeds 75,000. * PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as: [This list is being updated as the moment, you can get the entire list on the collections pages at gutenberg.cc] Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files eBooks@Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<< Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change Renascence Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files =======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files===== Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 Total Files These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of their donors: some are one file per book; some have a file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the overcounting or duplication of numbers. If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~45,714 Unique eBooks If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts, that leaves a unique book total of ~34,286 Unique eBooks * The new overall collection size, which has reduced the need to account for duplications and eBooks with files for each chapter, etc. 75,000+ Unique eBooks *** Please also note that over 25,000 eBooks are listed via The Online Books Page, of which over 5,700 are from PG. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ In addition: The Internet Public Library had a similar listing which is now in limbo. If anyone knows what is happening with the IPL, please let us know. Inquiries, made months ago, and again recently, have not turned up any current information. You can try a new IPL service at: http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00/ It would appear that The Internet Public Library ended its first incarnation with about 22,284 entries, which has now been surpassed by the Online Books Page. Still looking for more Internet Public Library info. *** Today Is Day #168 of 2006 This Completes Week #24 and Month #05.50 [364 days this year] 196 Days/30 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year] 007 Books To Go To #20,000 [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] 78 Weekly Average in 2006 61 Weekly Average in 2005 [Counting 216 PGEu] 57 Weekly Average in 2005 [Not Counting PGEu] 78 Weekly Average in 2004 79 Weekly Average in 2003 47 Weekly Average in 2002 24 Weekly Average in 2001 44 Only ~45 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers List [Used to be well over 100] [This listing usually from the previous week] *** Permanent Requests For Assistance: DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS NEEDS CONTENT, PROOFERS AND SCANNER TYPES Please visit the site: http://www.pgdp.net for more information about how you can help a lot by simply proofreading just a few pages per day, or more. 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Note that updated eBooks usually go in their original directory (e.g., etext99, etext00, etc.) *** Statistical Review In the 26 weeks of this year, we have produced 1954 new eBooks. It took us from 07/71 to 11/98 to produce our FIRST 1954 eBooks!!! That's 25 WEEKS as Compared to ~28 YEARS!!! FLASHBACK! Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #1954 Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ### A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright [Note: books without month and year entries are now in new catalog format] Nov 1999 Captain Blood, by Rafael Sabatini [R. Sabatini #3][cpbldxxx.xxx] 1965 [Reserved for Pietro di Miceli, former PG Webmaster] 1964* Nov 1999 The Confession, by Mary Roberts Rinehart [MRR #11][cnfsnxxx.xxx] 1963 Nov 1999 A Defence of Poesie and Poems, by Philip Sidney [dfncpxxx.xxx] 1962 Nov 1999 Books and Bookmen, by Andrew Lang[Andrew Lang #16][bkbkmxxx.xxx] 1961 Nov 1999 Sight Unseen, by Mary Roberts Rinehart[Rinehart10][stnsnxxx.xxx] 1960 Nov 1999 The Crown of Thorns, by E. H. Chapin [thrnsxxx.xxx] 1959 Nov 1999 Hermann and Dorothea by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe[handdxxx.xxx] 1958 Beatrix, by Honore de Balzac [Tr.: Katharine Prescott Wormeley] 1957 Nov 1999 And Even Now, by Max Beerbohm [Max Beerbohm #7][evnowxxx.xxx] 1956 Nov 1999 The Darrow Enigma, by Melvin L. Severy [dngmaxxx.xxx] 1955 Colonel Chabert, by Honore de Balzac [Tr.: Ellen Marriage & Clara Bell] 1954 Nov 1999 The Diary of an Old Soul, by George MacDonald [#6][doaosxxx.xxx] 1953 Nov 1999 The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman2[ylwlpxxx.xxx] 1952 The Coming Race, by Edward Bulwer Lytton 1951 A Woman of Thirty, by Honore de Balzac 1950 * Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet? If our average eBook has reached just 1% of the world population of 6,525,015,623 that would be 20,102 x 65,250,156 = ~1.31 Trillion !!! With 20,102 eBooks online as of June 28, 2006 it now takes an average of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.76 from each book. [1% world population x #eBooks] 65,250,156 x 20,102 x $.76 = ~$1 Trillion [Google "world population" "popclock" to get the most current figures.] [By the way, the US "popclock" is about to turn to 300 million people.] [Just turned 299 million last week!] * A Trillion Dollars Given Away At Just $.50 Value Per Book To 100 Million With 20,102 eBooks online as of June 28, 2006 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.50 from each book. This "cost" is down from about $.60 when we had 16,559 eBooks a year ago. Our Target Audience Is 1.5% Of The World Population = ~100,000,000 people. At 20,102 eBooks in 34 Years and 11.75 Months We Averaged 575 Per Year 48 Per Month 1.57 Per Day At 1954 eBooks Done In The 175 Days Of 2006 We Averaged 11.2 Per Day 78 per Week 340 Per Month If you are interested in the population of the world or of the U.S. you might want to know that these numbers, official as they appear, are just just estimates, and perhaps not as accurate as we hope. However, for those keeping track of how quickly the U.S. reaches a 300 million population level, and who noticed the passing of 298M, just two weeks ago. . .the U.S. is already 1/6 the way to 299M, so it will probably be 10 more weeks to 299M and 22 more to 300M. Recently the U.S. Congress, pertaining to district reapportionment, who gets to vote for which Congresspeople, decided that many of the districts were undercounted by 5%, perhaps then later deciding that all districts had been undercounted by 5% [can't recall details]. * The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks' production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon, starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 4th was the first Wednesday of 2006, and thus ended PG's production year of 2005 and began the production year of 2006 at noon. This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week. * Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists For more information about the Project Gutenberg's mailing lists, including the Project Gutenberg Weekly and Monthly Newsletters: and the other Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists: The weekly is sent on Wednesdays, and the monthly is sent on the first Wednesday of the month. 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Michael Hart