The New York Public Library has just installed an Espresso book-on-demand machine and they'll print any of over 200,000 public domain titles from the Open Content Alliance free of charge for any patron.
Library users will have the opportunity to print free copies of such public domain classics as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain, "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens and "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, as well as appropriately themed in-copyright titles as Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail" and Jason Epstein's own "Book Business." The public domain titles were provided by the Open Content Alliance ("OCA"), a non-profit organization with a database of over 200,000 titles. The OCA and ODB are working closely to offer this digital content free of charge to libraries across the country. Both organizations have received partial funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.The EBM, now available for sale to libraries and retailers, can potentially allow readers anywhere to obtain within minutes, almost any book title in any language, whether or not the book is in print. The EBM's proprietary software transmits a digital file to the book machine, which automatically prints, binds, and trims the reader's selection within minutes as a single, library-quality, paperback book, indistinguishable from the factory-made title.
(Thanks, WingManX!)
Update: Gayle Snible from the NYPL sez, "The Espresso machine at the Library is printing 20 (only one 0!) for this
trial run. The 200,000 is the high range that an Espresso machine would
print…somewhere else."
