[Sca-librarians] Way cool machine

[Judith Kirk]

http://www.lib.umich.edu/espresso-book-machine 

This is a link to information about the Espresso Book Machine. This
machine is at the University of Michigan Libraries. 

In essence, this is a Print on Demand for some of the books in the
University of Michigan's library collection.

Just recently, I was helping someone find copies of some unusual,
out-of-print materials for their research. I couldn't find copies
near them to get via interlibrary loan, there are no used copies
available for purchase, the European publisher has gone out of
business... things looked pretty bleak.

BUT...the very books they wanted are in the U-M collection, and
I've recommended that the person contact U-M to find out how much it
would cost to get copies.

This book machine looks wonderful, especially for the kind of
obscure resources SCA folks look for. This is an indication of an
exciting future in research when interlibrary loan is not an option,
and materials cannot be obtained directly from other resources.

Please check out the url above, and for general information on the
Espresso Book Machine, see this url: http://www.ondemandbooks.com.

Right now, only materials out of copyright (pre-1923 imprints) are
the only ones being made available, but on the request form, you can
explain special cases and these will be decided upon on a
case-by-case basis.

Very exciting

Siobhan O'Neill
Midrealm