Happy bookish birthdays (8 March) to…
Special note: this is also the birthday of Michael S. Hart, who founded and pioneered Project Gutenberg. While not an “author” the way the other people in this post are, Hart’s PG has been very important to literature, and especially to the readers of this blog. What Hart did was take public domain (not under copyright protection) books (and some other types of literature, including magazines) and get them digitized (turned into e-books)…and then make them available free over the internet. There are now more than 50,000 titles there. Many volunteers contribute to digitizing and proofreading these books. I have read many books which were likely digitized thanks to Michael S. Hart’s efforts (in some cases, they were amplified by people adding commentary or other new material to them). I liken what Hart did to what Benjamin Franklin did in establishing a lending library when books were expensive and difficult to obtain for a large percentage of the population.
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All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com
