Bookstore | Cornell University Library Digital Collections
I find the new trend towards print-on-demand for out-of-print books a compelling one. The Cornell model uses Amazon to sell copies of books they have digitized via the now defunct Microsoft project as well as their Google partnership. Given the prices on their site it appears there is not huge markup, which would be my main concern. If operations like this can make a enough money to cover the costs of digitizing more, and the digital copies remain accessible to all at no cost (not a given unfortunately), then I think we have a nice model for the future. McMaster's recently announced partnership with Lulu had similar promise, the big problem with this one is that the digital books are not accessible to all. I wasn't able to confirm any of this as I could only access the original press release on the Mac Library site and the digital collections server and blog seemed to be down, so I stand to be corrected on this one. If right, I just can't reconcile myself to the concept of digitizing public domain material and placing them behind a wall - why would libraries go against centuries of stewardship of the public commons and lock up the world's knowledge?
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