Publishing the Information of Yesterday (and Today)

Recently I posted about Google Books and what the internet experience was like.  Google bringing rare books to paperback explains the search giant has inked a deal with On Demand Books.  More about them shortly, but the business deal means that a couple of million books that Google has digitized can be printed with one of On Demand Books' Expresso Book Machines.  As I wrote earlier, many of these books may be antiquated, but contain information and history that would otherwise be forgotten if not for Google's efforts.

The press release explains that On Demand Books has developed a new publishing paradigm.  They sell the book first and then print and ship, in contrast to the traditional model of printing, shipping, and then selling.  They currently have twelve book machines in libraries and bookstores, and will soon be adding the Harvard Book Store and the University of Missouri Bookstore to their installation base.  On Demand Books previously offered 1.6 million titles, and now Google provides another two million texts.

An Expresso Book Machine sells for around $75,000.  It costs roughly one penny a page for the printing.  The company estimates that an installation will produce about 10,000 books a year, with sizes ranging between 40 to 830 pages.  The size of the book can be trimmed between 4.5" x 4.5" to 8.25" x 10.5".  They can be printed in either color or black and white.  A 110 page per minute printer separately prints the pages and they are bound, glued, and trimmed by the book machine.

The University of Michigan's Library website explains they have a small collection of books printed for walk-up sales.  They have an online form that allows requesting a book printing.  Pricing for less than 150 pages is $6.00, up to 450 pages is $10.00.  Unfortunately, they are not shipping books, so you will have to visit the Shapiro Undergraduate Library in Ann Arbor.