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The next step, which is just being completed, is the digitization of the Berlinische Monatsschrift, a German periodical from the Enlightenment, comprising 58 volumes, 2,574 articles on 30,626 pages. A somewhat bigger digitization project of German periodicals from the 18th and early 19th century is planned. The size will be about 1,000,000 pages.

MB: "In that first phase of our attempts at digitization, starting Nov. 1997 and ending June 1997, 38 rare prints were scanned as image files and made available via the Web. These are, for copyright reasons, not available outside of campus.

Access to the collection will become boundless with users from all over the world, at any time, having simple, fast access to digitized materials using computer networks, particularly the Internet." What exactly is digitization?

1993/12: Creation of three main sections: Light Literature, Heavy Literature, Reference Literature. 1994: Digitization of eight books per month. 1995: Digitization of 16 books per month. 1996-97: Digitization of 32 books per month. 1998-2000: Digitization of 36 books per month. 2000/10: Charles Franks started Distributed Proofreaders to assist Project Gutenberg.

Digitization has made it possible to create, record, manipulate, combine, store, retrieve and transmit information and information-based products in ways which magnetic tape, celluloid and paper did not permit. Digitization thus allows music, cinema and the written word to be recorded and transformed through similar processes and without separate material supports.

The books are digitized in "text" format, with caps for terms in italic, bold or underlined, so they can be read easily by any machine, operating system or software. Digitization is done by scanning. The book is then proofread twice by two different people, who make any corrections necessary. When the original is in poor condition, as with very old books, it is typed in manually, word by word.

It is possible to search the content of the book with the "Find" button available in any browser and any software, without a specific search engine. A field "Full Text" was recently added as an experimental feature. The assets of digitization in "text format" are numerous.

2007/04: 1,500 books in Project Gutenberg of Australia. 2007: Digitization of 338 books per month. 2008/03: 100 books in Project Gutenberg of Canada. 2008/04: 25,000 books in Project Gutenberg. 2008/05: 500 books in Project Gutenberg Europe. *All the stats below are the main Project Gutenberg stats. = A Few Milestones 1,000 books in August 1997. 2,000 books in May 1999.

When the original is in poor condition, as with very old books, it is keyed in manually, word by word. Some volunteers themselves prefer to type short texts, or works they particularly like. But most books are scanned, "OCRized" and proofread. The assets of digitization in "text format" are numerous.

It makes a smaller and more easily sendable computer file, unlike digitization in "image format", which produces a bulky "photo" file. Contrary to other formats, the files are accessible for low-bandwidth use. They can be copied as much as needed to produce new digital or print versions for free. The typos pointed out after the text is released can be fixed at any time.