Volunteer and Proofread Project Gutenberg Ebooks

You might have read earlier that Project Gutenberg is possibly the first and largest single collection of free electronic books (eBooks). Distributed Proofreaders provides a web-based method of easing the proofreading work associated with the digitization of Public Domain books into Project Gutenberg e-books with a team of volunteer proofreaders.

So how does it work?

“When a proofreader elects to proofread a page of a particular book, the text and image file are displayed on a single web page. This allows the page text to be easily reviewed and compared to the image file, thus assisting the proofreading of the page text. The edited text is then submitted back to the site via the same web page that it was edited on. A second proofreader is then presented with the work of the first proofreader and the page image. Once they have verified the work of the first proofreader and corrected any additional errors the page text is again submitted back to the site. The book then progresses through two formatting rounds using the same web interface.

Once all pages for a particular book have been processed, a post-processor joins the pieces, properly formats them into a Project Gutenberg e-book and submits it to the Project Gutenberg archive.”

Interested in proofreading and editing ebooks, you can also volunteer and register to be a new proofreader. FAQ Central provides helpful resources on how to proofread.