Electronic book devotees may want to set aside some, extra screen time this summer, as two nonprofits are preparing to provide free access to 300,000 texts online.

, , Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library plan to make a third of a million e-books available free for a month at the first World eBook Fair. Downloads will be available at the fairs Web site from July 4, the 35th anniversary of Project Gutenbergs founding, through August 4.

, , Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart, who first announced the ambitious plan a month ago, said Friday the partners are on track to make 1 million books, available for the annual fairs one-month run in 2009, with more appearing in subsequent years. About 100,000, he said, will be permanently available at the handful of Project Gutenberg sites on the Internet.

, , , The Gutenberg books, typed and scanned into computers by thousands of volunteers, mostly are those that are no longer protected by copyright. They include fiction, nonfiction and reference books and will be available for, worldwide readers in about 100 languages.