Amazon.com's BookSurge subsidiary announced Thursday that it has partnered with book digitization company Kirtas Technologies on a project to archive and distribute hard-to-find books. This new initiative involves collaboration with public and university libraries to provide their collections of "rare and inaccessible" books; the titles will be digitized through Kirtas and then reproductions will be sold through Amazon through the BookSurge print-on-demand service.
In return, the partner libraries--initially consisting of Emory University, University of Maine, and the public libraries in Toronto, Ont. and Cincinnati, Ohio--will receive a cut of the revenue to fund further book preservation efforts, provided the titles are in the public domain or the libraries own the rights to them.
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Interesting development, especially the print-on-demand part. Google already has a big lead in digitizing books from libraries. I wonder if there will be any impact on Interlibrary Loan.
1 comment:
Some book search sites, such as ABE, list numerous "print-on-demand" books. These services usually charge an arm and a leg for them while admitting that the photo and illustration reproduction is not what it should be. Often times, one can buy the real thing for a comparable price or even less. So what's the point?
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