Posted on 10/29/2008 9:02:37 AM PDT by Mike Fieschko
FROM next year academics at the University of Melbourne will be able to pick up the phone to order a new tome from the US or an out-of-print textbook, then walk over to the library to pick it up.
Publishing distributor DA Information Services has signed a memorandum of understanding with Melbourne to install an Espresso Book Machine at the library. The machines are capable of turning out a 550-page, perfect-bound paperback within 10 minutes at a cost comparable with buying books off the shelf.
[snip]
Content is distributed digitally through EBM's network, under which book publishers retain full ownership and control over the content files and automatically remit royalty payments.
Once the machine is in place from next year, DA Information will be able to order new and out-of-print books from the EBM network and download them for printing at the university library. Developed by US-based On Demand Books Inc, there are so far only 11 EBM machines in operation worldwide. ...
Last month, DA International was involved in installing what is so far the only EBM in Australia at an Angus & Robertson bookshop in central Melbourne. Angus & Robertson is planning to eventually have 50 machines in operation ...
At more than $100,000, EBMs don't come cheap, and neither do the materials, but key for Melbourne University is that it can spread the cost across its library and bookshop.
[snip]
However, DA International is expecting the cost of EBMs to fall as more are produced. ...
[snip]
In addition to new and out-of-print books, the machine can also reproduce rare books, digital collections, theses, conference reports or simply old library books that are falling apart.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
BarnesandNoble.com, when it was more Bertelsmann, was going to start a publish-on-demand service but nothing came of that. Not that I know of, anyway.
That is just too cool.
If it prints college textbooks, they will still charge $200 a copy.
I'm already in the process of scanning my own textbooks into the computer, to serve as ready reference in my laptop wherever I go in the world.
If these guys were smart, they'd try to hook up with someone like Apple that has an already wide-spread DRM & distribution system for making textbooks fully electronic.
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