While it looks like it's still a ways from setting up shop next to more traditional
vending machines, those in New York CIty can now get their instant-book fix from the very first (non-beta)
Espresso Book Machine, which has found a home in the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library. For the time being, most of the books on offer appear to be ones in the public domain, including over 200,000 titles from the Open Content Alliance database, which visitors to the library can print off books free of charge, the end result of which is supposedly "indistinguishable from the factory-made title." From the looks of it, Espresso manufacturer On Demand Books doesn't seem to be having any trouble getting takers for the machine, with the New Orleans Public Library, the University of Alberta, the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and the Open Content Alliance in San Francisco each already in line to get one this fall.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex @ Jun 21st 2007 6:01PM
That's pretty cool! I'll have to check this out on campus (U of Alberta) in September. Neat!
Carl M @ Jun 21st 2007 6:20PM
Wow! I didn't know there were that many books written about Expresso! :)
Nate @ Jun 21st 2007 6:59PM
There are few, if any books about "expresso."
This is mainly due to the fact that the word in question is "espresso."
I wish the "Starbucks generation" would get it right.
Stephen @ Jun 21st 2007 6:24PM
It's so compact!
ChaoZ @ Jun 21st 2007 6:40PM
Indeed it is. If you knew anything about the printing and bindery processes involved, you'll realize this is a pretty big breakthrough. Factor in the fact that you need to build the machine so that a relative novice can operate AND service it, and it's quite a challenge they've answered.
Of course, like all technology, the machine will eventually shrink and economies of scale will kick in and make this an affordable addition to many bookstores and libraries.
Either that or e-paper will finally take off and leave this device obsolete.
murray @ Jun 21st 2007 6:48PM
But there's no cafe!
Video of system working here: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/perfectbook.mov
Michael Emmons @ Jun 21st 2007 7:46PM
Erm..did anyone watch the video? While certainly impressive, it prints like a page every 3-4 seconds. Not a technology I'd be willing to stand in line for is there is more than 1 person ahead of me.
murray @ Jun 21st 2007 8:13PM
It's not 1 page every 3-4 seconds, it's 4 pages. It's printed in duplex and then folded into a book. Think about it.
Also if you listen to the video all the way through, she mentions that the speed of printing is dependent on the printer used. Spend more, faster printer, faster books (up to one per minute, they claim.. of course I don't think they mean War and Peace).
absurdio @ Jun 21st 2007 7:01PM
Okay. So, I've read the Engadget writeup and the full story at prweb. I have two questions.
1) Both writeups insist that you can get books free of charge. Who on earth is paying for this? With one or two notable exceptions, my school's library doesn't let you print much of anything for free. And I'm a paying student, so, presumably, the few pages I AM permitted to print are covered by the exorbitant tuition the school exacts from me. Books? For free? 200,000+ of them? What am I missing? And what's to stop a man (say, um... me) from visiting this machine, and printing myself free copies of dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of books? I'd love to believe that the world was altruistic enough to really offer free books to whoever wants them, but I have a strong feeling there's a catch lurking here somewhere.
And 2) ...What does espresso have to do with anything?
John @ Jun 21st 2007 7:18PM
"What does espresso have to do with anything?"
It means fast or quickly in Italian. Ever wondered why it is spelled like "express?"
murray @ Jun 21st 2007 8:18PM
"AdSense"
Chris Spalding @ Jun 21st 2007 7:01PM
This is indeed an impressive machine. I have a few questions though; Can u fool around with the font and/or type of the book? Can one conjoin several books, like a trilogy or even works by different authors into one form? Does anybody else think this might be applicable to magazines, say instead of buying a separate Popular Mechanics and a Popular Science you just print both together as one or maybe a Economist/Time/Newsweek hybrid?
murray @ Jun 21st 2007 8:16PM
According to the video, the machine has a simple document format. If it was set up in such a way that you could give it your own document to print, then yes, I imagine you could print multiple books together. However I expect you will typically only be able to select books from a list. In which case, no.
Photovoltage @ Jun 21st 2007 7:28PM
The idea printing magazines is probably way too prohibitive in terms of cost way too much colour.
I can see the point of doing this for text.
Secondly I'm presuming that by "free" they mean royalty free - I'm guessing you still have to pay for the paper/ink/machine wear & tear etc
This will come into its own for copies of books that are incredibly hard to come by, out of print etc.
Michael Emmons @ Jun 21st 2007 7:46PM
1. Print out a dozen free books a day
2. Sell books on Amazon's used book storefront
3. Profit!
GioNYC2 @ Jun 21st 2007 8:31PM
Librarians start planning your retirement!
Pinkerton @ Jun 21st 2007 11:27PM
While this is a neat idea, the books are all in the public domain. Thanks to Disney, copyrights have been extended to 95 years. Publishers ultimately have the last word on what media their books are released in. They have historically had a love/hate relationship with libraries because content is shared between so many people. They are not about to give away their content, as evidenced by the flap currently surrounding Google Print. BTW, you can download whole pdf books from Google Print, including books from the collection of the NY Public Library. Complete book downloads are from the public domain, which works out nicely for historical research, and classic literature.
As the article states, “Printed books are one of history’s greatest and most enduring inventions, and after centuries, their form needs no improvement,” says Epstein. “What does need to change is the outdated way that books reach readers.” I agree that the book is a user friendly format, but imagine how much paper this uses on a large scale.
Then again, maybe the book is not so great, as seen here... Middle Ages Tech Support...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRBIVRwvUeE
Doc Lucas @ Jun 21st 2007 11:30PM
Disclosure: I am a librarian. However, "business" is very good (for now).
Nathan @ Jun 29th 2007 11:22AM
Trust me, this'll have no impact on the job of librarians. Even if they some day manage to have access to all the books a library typically does, the average patron still won't be able to find what they want/need. You wouldn't believe how many people come up asking questions like, "Do you know the book where a guy kills a woman using a garden hoe? I think it's pretty old."
Andrew @ Jun 21st 2007 8:54PM
o yea.. is it just me or does the commentator of the video sound like she is going to have an orgasm?
Andrew @ Jun 21st 2007 8:55PM
AWESOME! LET'S ALL GO TO THE LIBRARY! or not... who goes to a library
anymore to check out books? we all know that the library is just a
quiet place to rent cds and dvds.
Av @ Jun 21st 2007 9:11PM
Actually, this isn't the first Espresso Machine. I was in Egypt last month and they've had one installed at the Library in Alexandria for a while with the same caveat that only public domain books are available right now, they're working on the copyright stuff for other books. I'll email a picture in.
darter9000 @ Jun 21st 2007 9:19PM
Two shots of mystery on a double-sized novel, and go easy on the horror.
jg @ Jun 21st 2007 10:12PM
While this thing seems cool, it also spells death to Novelists everywhere. Books-on-demand means there will never be any reason to take a chance on an author (ie give him a contract) and will negate the need for publishers and printers. Why take chance and print 10,000 books - giving the author a nice enough bonus check to actually be able to buy food while writing - when you can just print the bare, bare minimum and tell the writer "so solly cholly, shoulda been a docta." Yay cheaper books for me, but at the same time, now it becomes worthless for people to even try to become writers as the time/money ratio becomes crap. For the reason that robots shouldn't take all manual labor jobs, books-on-demand shouldn't destroy an entire industry just for convenience.
My opinion at least, but then again, what do I know?
Scooter @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:05PM
if that were true, publishers wouldn't take a risk with authors now. Yes, they might use this to test the waters - possibly getting more authors into print. But they will still want blockbusters, and the economics of long-run printing - and the gains from the winners - will continue to encourage them to take those gambles.
darter9000 @ Jun 23rd 2007 2:22PM
Would this be the end of authors or publishers? I'd think that'd be the more valid area of tension. If you think about it this way. Why would authors go to publishers if they knew that all they need to do to reach the population is to put their book on a disk and send it to the folks that created this machine (or running this machine). Then it'd be a direct author to storefront relationship. It might still be a stretch, but the nature of the middleman would definitely be different from the nature of the publisher.
Chris Moroz @ Jun 21st 2007 10:22PM
So is this designed to print new books the library doesn't ahve to put into the library cycle, or to print for free to keep?
Ryhan @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:25AM
Though intriguing, I would probably buy it off amazon and wait a day, rather waiting for it to print and then paying somehow like crazy... someone has to pay for the ink and paper u know...
But it is a technological marvel nonetheless...
Mark @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:42AM
Maybe the makers could remove the word 'Espresso' to avoid confusion in the North American market? Or maybe call it 'Espresso Book (not coffee) Machine'
Us Europeans will probably cope with its current name without too many lame coffee jokes though! Hang on, you guys were joking about the coffee...right?
Matt Jackson @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:38AM
Maybe I missed it but what impact will this have on the environment?
After email was entroduced in teh workplace paper use went up something like 500%.
What will this Darth esspresso machine do?
mxval @ Nov 25th 2007 3:54AM
Just heard and article about this:
http://onthemedia.org/episodes/2007/11/23/segments/89236
Interesting about the glue issue; wonderful when people think, solve problems and overcome long standing limitations.
docsharp01 @ Mar 31st 2008 10:10PM
Excellent comments and article.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com