Michael S. Hart passed away this week in Illinois. On July 4, 1971--40 years ago!--Hart typed the Declaration of Independence into a computer and sent it to other users on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign computer network. From that beginning, he created Project Gutenberg, which now has more than 36,000 ebooks available for free download to computers, ebook readers, and other portable devices. Many of these books are classics and all are public domain, or free of copyright restrictions, in the United States. A small selection of these titles is included in the Library catalog, and the entire collection is available on the Project Gutenberg Web site. Why make literature and ideas available to millions of people for free in a new format?  "Learning is its own reward," said Michael S. Hart, "Nothing I can say is better than that."

More information about ebooks and readers is available in the Library's Digital Books Show & Tell subject guide.