Legal Research

The Espresso Machine

I've seen this at quite a few shows and it is quite amazing.

Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London
Launching in London today, the Espresso Book Machine can print any of 500,000 titles while you wait.

"Described as an "ATM for books" by its US proprietor On Demand Books, Espresso machines have already been established in the US, Canada and Australia, and in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, but the Charing Cross Road machine is the first to be set up in a UK bookstore. It cost Blackwell some $175,000, but the bookseller believes it will make this back in a year. "I do think this is going to change the book business," said Phill Jamieson, Blackwell head of marketing. "It has the potential to be the biggest change since Gutenberg and we certainly hope it will be. And it's not just for us ? it gives the ability to small independent bookshops to compete with anybody.""

Here's the video showing it in action:

The Espresso Book Machine (YouTube)

Another perspective from TeleRead:

The Espresso Machine, an ATM for books: Will e-books suffer if it takes off?

You're probably already aware of this machine. It's been in North America for a while.

Libraries are using it for on demand printing of public domain classics. University textbook stores are using it for coursepacks and books. And bookstores are using it. It's still early but there is opportunity here. Ultimately there will be millions of books available (over half a million now) nd your collections can be potentialy infinite.

I suspect this is part of the thinking in the Google AAP agreement endgame to restore revenue to backlists.

What an exciting world!

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on April 29, 2009 (boomark / email).