Google Signs Print-on-Demand Deal for Two Million Public Domain Titles

Espresso Book Machine can print paperback in minutes

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 9/17/2009

• "ATM for books"
• Price could be $8
• Quality sufficient?
• More titles may come after settlement

Google and On Demand Books (ODB), the maker of the Espresso Book Machine® (EBM), have signed a deal to provide print-on-demand (PoD) access to more than two million public-domain titles (published before 1923) in the Google digital files.

The deal also presages potential PoD access to millions more in-copyright “orphan works” should the Google Book Search settlement be approved.

The EBM, which its makers call “an ATM for books,” is already located at several bookstores and libraries. This deal likely heralds demand for more of the machines, which cost about $100,000 (according to the AP) but also can be leased. It takes about five minutes to print a book, which is described as a paperback of library quality. 

The AP reports a recommended $8 price, with a dollar from each sale going to ODB and a dollar to Google, which will donate that commission to “charities and other nonprofit causes.”

(Here’s past LJ coverage of the EBM.)

Deal already with OCA
EBM users can already access more than one million public-domain books through the Open Content Alliance (OCA) and additional titles via various publishers, and numerous individual publishers. Notable among these is a partnership with Lightning Source, a subsidiary of the wholesaler Ingram Book Group and a major POD distributor.

Jason Epstein, former editorial director of Random House and a co-founder of ODB, said, “With the Google inventory the EBM will make it possible for readers everywhere to have access to millions of digital titles in multiple languages, including rare and out of print public domain titles.”

Quality questions
One issue regarding the PoD deal for libraries and other end-users is the quality of the scans. Some libraries, such as the University of Pennsylvania (UP) system, have teamed up with Kirtas Technologies for PoD access to public domain holdings. Nothing is scanned until an order is placed.

Penn officials in February said Kirtas’s scanning process results in a higher quality scan, suitable for PoD.

Locations for EBMs
Early versions of the device—EBM 1.5’s—are located at the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton, AB; the Internet Archive Office in San Francisco; the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, VT; the Bibliotheca Alexandrina at Alexandria, Egypt; the New Orleans Public Library; the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor; Angus & Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, Australia; McMaster University Bookstore in Hamilton, ON, and Newsstand Books in Canterbury, England.

The new commercial model, Version 2.0, is available at University of Waterloo Bookstore, Waterloo, Canada; Blackwell Bookstore, London, England; McGill University Library, Montreal. Among upcoming locations are The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA, and the University of Melbourne Library in Melbourne, Australia.

Contact the author: noder@reedbusiness.com

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