There is much work to be done putting all the classics of French culture online
freely available to all in a easy and practical format. A total of 1,117 books
are currently accessible in text format on Gallica (Bibliotheque nationale de
France / French National Library), 288 on ABU (Association des bibliophiles
universels / The Universal Association of Booklovers), 195 in html and/or rtf
format on Athena, and several dozen more on other websites. Some digital
libraries specialize in shorter material. These include the Bibliotheque
electronique de Lisieux (Lisieux Electronic Library), which digitizes mostly
news and articles, or Miscellanees, which calls itself a "miscellaneous"
library.

PROJECT GUTENBERG: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

[Original version published in French by Edition-Actu, 1st March 2004.]

Since my 15 February article about Michael Hart and Project Gutenberg, which
mentioned the forthcoming launch of Project Gutenberg Europe (Hart recently
spoke about it to the European Parliament), I've had a lot of questions from
readers. Here are some answers:

Remember Project Gutenberg is becoming international. Its main office is in the
United States, but Project Gutenberg Australia and Projekt Gutenberg-DE
(Germany) have been going for a long time. Project Gutenberg Europe will be
European, with a staff in Belgrade and links between the different projects. I
think it's interesting to build a French-language online library working with
other groups. It's preparing for the future, when machine translation will be
99% satisfactory (things are progressing well on that front, though there's a
lot still to do). In about 10 years, everyone will be able to call up literary
classics in a choice of about 100 languages. Let's work together instead of
separately, since for once it's possible.

Let's also remember that everyone working with Project Gutenberg is a volunteer,
including founder Michael Hart. The goal is to ensure its future independence of
loans and other funding and of fleeting political and cultural priorities, to
avoid any pressure from politicians or economic interests. The aim is also to
ensure respect for the volunteers, who can be confident their work will be used
for many years, even generations. Donations are used only to buy equipment and
supplies, mostly computers and scanners.

And then let's remember that all the books scanned in are proofread twice, by
two different people, to make sure they are 99