Free Books, Electronically
From: Chronicle of Higher Education - 06/07/2006

Project Gutenberg is organizing a book fair featuring online texts from its
own digital library as well as that of the World eBook Library Consortia.
During the World eBook Fair, which will take place from July 4 to August 4,
users can download free copies of books from Project Gutenberg's collection
of 18,000 texts, which are always free, or from the World eBook Library
Consortia, which otherwise cost $8.95 each. Organizers hope the event will
encourage more people to start reading books electronically, not only on
desktop or laptop computers but also on portable devices. Michael S. Hart,
founder of Project Gutenberg, said, "We get a lot of people reading Project
Gutenberg e-books on PDAs, iPods, pocket PCs, cell phones, etc." Hart said
electronic books benefit those who cannot get physical books from traditional
libraries, noting that the goal of Project Gutenberg is to "break down the
bars of ignorance and illiteracy." Daniel Greenstein, executive director of
the California Digital Library, said that e-books are typically being used to
find facts, not to facilitate "the reading experience that we all know and
love."  

Read the entire article at: (subscription required)
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/06/2006060701t.htm

Links:
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/

History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/history.html

Project Gutenberg Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg

World eBook Fair
http://www.worldebookfair.com/index.htm

California Digital Library
http://www.cdlib.org/