There are a few things to consider. I seem to recall, that there was once years ago, when
we did include volunteer-contributed "blurbs" to the catalog for
books in our collection. The quality, length and content matter
varied a lot. It turns out to be a specialized skill, to write an
effective, brief book summary. In the end, I think they all got removed at some
point in time.
Relating to automated book summaries, I wonder if there is a way to
offer them on a trial basis, and measure if there is interest in
them from visitors to
gutenberg.org. I would be a fan of having
automated book summaries presented in a way that it is clear they are
not part of the "traditional catalog" information.
This ties into another topic I've been thinking about, that we are
perhaps overdue for an effort to tweak the design of the PG catalog
pages again. When we try to keep adding more little bits and pieces
over time, it gets to be a crowded page. I know we tried using a "tabs"
system once, but did not keep it very long. I wonder if there is some
other way to present a "basic record", and then have optional
"Extended" information if a user wants to access it.
--Andrew