By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009

On Demand Books has partnered with Google Books to sell an Espresso Book Machine that can print and bind a 300 page paperback book with full color cover in 4 minutes for a suggested retail price of $8 per book. You can now purchase books literally hot off the press.

Google has worked with libraries to identify and digitize over 2 million out-of-copyright books. On Demand Books has an additional 1.6 million books to bring the total books available for printing on the Espresso Book Machine to 3.6 million. They range from old popular classics to obscure, largely unknown and unread books from the past. Some may have wide appeal while others may appeal only to people with rather narrow, specialized interests.

Bookstores are taking the bait and starting to order these $100,000 machines. They may be opening the way to their own destruction.

Last month Harvard Book Store owner Jeffrey Mayersohn installed an Espresso Book Machine to provide his customers with a wide range of classic books. Ironically his private bookstore is located along Massachusetts Avenue close to the Harvard University's Widener Library by Harvard Yard in Cambridge, MA. The old, out-of-date books were the last vestige of traditional libraries in the Internet age where "visiting the library," more often than not, just means going to the library's web site.

Earlier this month the first Espresso Book Machine to appear on the West Coast of the United States was installed in Village Books in Fairhaven just south of Bellingham, Washington. Clearly this is just the beginning of a revolution in print-on-demand book publication.

Why stop at bookstores? Starbucks will want to offer you a book to read with your latte. Airports along with bus and train stations may be next. Could McDonalds be far behind?

The first prototype of a machine to print, bind and trim on-demand books was developed 10 years ago by Jeff Marsh (nice name, but not related) of Lebanon, Missouri. The World Bank's Info Shop in Washington, D.C. was the first to try out his machine in April of 2006.

Initially a few wealthy people will order Espresso Book Machines for their homes. Inevitably the price of the machines will fall and demand will spread. The cost of the paper, ink and binding materials is already as low as $3 for a 300 page book.

Soon manufactures of computer printers will want in on the action and add binding to their printer's set of tricks. Bookstores may be sorry they got this ball rolling.

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Also see:

Spend some of that $650 million for educational video games

Flynn Effect, IQ scores and SAT scores: Are our children smarter than we are?

Google Books changes everything in student teacher education

Revealed preference "Daily Me" key to online newspaper survival

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