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The Espresso Book Machine
September 24, 2008
My colleague Michael Blake sent me this news item from the University of Michigan’s News Service, reporting on how the new “Shapiro Library book machine prints books within minutes.” From the article: “The Espresso Book Machine, from On Demand Books of New York, produces perfect-bound, high-quality paperback books on demand.”
They’ve put the machine in the lobby of the Shapiro Library lobby on their central campus. The process sounds simple, to paraphrase from the article: the reader selects a digitized book from the University’s pre-1923 collection (or from other selected non-copyrighted online sources), the file is downloaded to the Machine, and it then formats, prints, and binds the book. According to the UofM news report, it takes 5-7 minutes to make the book, depending on its length, and the cost is about $10 per title.
The report notes that UM is the first university to purchase the machine, which was acquired through donations to the UM libraries. Will this machine have an effect similar to Gutenberg’s press, as OnDemand claims on their web site? Sure sounds like it could. At $10 a pop, I can imagine loads of researchers who would love to create a personal library of out-of-print titles.
More as it happens, with the magic of good technology,
Cheryl
Posted by Cheryl LaGuardia on September 24, 2008 | Comments (2)
