author
Gregory B. Newby
1965–2025
A lifelong champion of open access, he helped bring classic literature and digital knowledge to readers around the world. His work blended information science, internet culture, and a practical belief that books should be easier for everyone to reach.
1 Audiobook
Forty-Five Years of Digitizing Ebooks: Project Gutenberg's Practices
by Gregory B. Newby
About the author
Gregory B. Newby (February 9, 1965 – October 21, 2025) was an American and Canadian information scientist, educator, and nonprofit leader best known for his long connection to Project Gutenberg. He served as the founding CEO of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and spent many years helping guide one of the internet’s most influential free digital libraries.
His career also included university teaching and research in information science, with work focused on information retrieval, human-computer interaction, and the social impact of networked technology. Sources from Project Gutenberg and academic memorial pages describe him as someone who cared deeply about widening access to knowledge and using the internet in thoughtful, practical ways.
For readers and listeners, his legacy is easy to feel: he helped preserve and share public-domain books at a scale that opened them to millions of people. That mix of technical skill, public service, and love of literature made him an important figure in the history of digital reading.