August 01, 2007
NY Public Library Printing Free Books On Demand
Gutenburg would be impressed! The New York Public Library has just installed a book-on-demand machine and they will print any of over 200,000 public domain titles from the Open Content Alliance free of charge for any patron.
It is called the Espresso Book Machine™ (“the EBM”) will be available at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry, and Business Library in Manhattan.
Unlike existing print on demand technology, EBM’s are fully integrated, automatic machines that require minimal human intervention. They do not require a factory setting and are small enough to fit in a retail store or small library room. While traditional factory based print on demand machines usually cost over $1,000,000 per unit, the EBM is priced to be affordable for retailers and libraries. The direct-to-consumer model of the EBM eliminates shipping and warehousing costs for books (thereby also eliminating returns and pulping of unsold books) and allows simultaneous global availability of millions of new and backlist titles in all categories and languages. These savings permit potentially lower prices to consumers and libraries, and greater royalties and profits to authors and publishers. Also, titles will never have to go out of print again.
According to its creator, Jason Epstein of On Demand Books "printed books are one of history’s greatest and most enduring inventions, and after centuries, their form needs no improvement.What does need to change is the outdated way that books reach readers."