Some of us read classics. Lots of classics. And we read them over and over again. By a conservative estimate, I’ve read Jane Austen’s Emma ten times. I used to keep an eye out for cheap paperbacks to fill my classics collection, but now through the wonders of Project Gutenberg, I can have darn near any classic I want for free.
Project Gutenberg is the largest and oldest digital library. Started in 1971, the mission of Project Gutenberg is to make public domain works available as e-books for free. (Public domain works, meaning they are no longer cover by copyright, generally include anything published before 1923.) There are now over 45,000 titles available from Project Gutenberg, and the big leg up the site has over others that offer free public domain e-books is that every Project Gutenberg title is proofread multiple times by the volunteers at Distributed Proofreaders.
Having been around since 1971, a lot of people know about Project Gutenberg, but did you know that you can download their e-books through the Ohio Digital Library? The Ohio Digital Library is where you’re already going to borrow library e-books from the Stark County District Library. Yet, have you noticed the Always Available icon on the home page?
Clicking or tapping on this icon leads to a page where the Always Available books can be searched or browsed. The copies of these e-books are provided by Project Gutenberg, but only the EPUB versions. (Other formats, including MOBI for Kindle and MP3 audio, must be downloaded directly from the Project Gutenberg website.) And here’s an interesting secret—I find it decidedly easier to download the Project Gutenberg books from the Ohio Digital Library site than from Gutenberg.org. Simply click or tap Download underneath the desired title, and it opens right up in whatever software or app is already installed on the device.
This means that the software (Adobe Digital Editions) or app (OverDrive Media Console) that you’re already using to read EPUBs from the Ohio Digital Library will read these e-books as well. And other apps and software work just as well. For instance, I download my Project Gutenberg books, whether I get them directly from their site or from the Ohio Digital Library, to a free app called Freda.
And unlike other e-books you borrow from the Ohio Digital Library, these books are not just always available, but always yours. Since they come from Project Gutenberg, any book downloaded this way has no return date, but is yours to keep forever. And you might want to keep it awhile—you never know when you might have the urge to read that favorite book for an eleventh time.
Shelia
