The Gutenberg project exceeds the symbolic bar of 50,000 pounds

Last updated on February 23, 2025

This is a symbolic step that the Gutenberg project has just taken a few days ago. This free and universal online library has added its 50,000th book to its shelves.

Michael Hart, one of the creators of this crazy project who died last month, will not have seen this fifty thousandth book symbolising the success of this digital library open to knowledge and sharing thanks to the efforts and personal investment of thousands of volunteers.

If today Amazon-style online bookstores announce dizzying numbers of books available, it should be recalled that The Gutenberg project was born in 1971 when no one digitized books. One time or scanning a single page of a book took several minutes … 35 years and 50,000 books digitized later, Project Gutenberg volunteers can be proud of the work done.

A free, open-access library with high-quality copies that offer a virtual shelving of real treasures. The Gutenberg project offers a powerful search engine to find you in its huge shelves. The site offers and it is a real added value most of the works in several digital formats as well as the possibility to consult it directly online.

What is the 50,000 book proposed by the Gutenberg project?  The organisers of the project could have chosen to propose the Journal d’Anne Franck in order to benefit from the controversy surrounding the decision of the rightholders and the publisher of Anne Frank to postpone the entry into the public domain of the famous newspaper.

This controversy also illustrates the difficulty of offering books in the public domain or for free download. So for its 50,000th book, the Gutenberg project chose another symbol by proposing John Gutenberg, First Master Printer, His Acts, and most remarkable Discourses, and his Death. A work that speaks of Gutenberg, his life, his death and his universal contribution to knowledge and knowledge.

The Gutenberg project, to discover or rediscover. The site offers in particular an Rss Thread very practical that makes it possible to follow all the new books put online every day.

Link: Project Gutenberg