Emerging Technologies in Libraries: Print on Demand

Introduction and Overview

             It is an exciting time for libraries in terms of developing technology and its influence on traditional library roles and procedures.   One such technology that could potentially change the way libraries operate is print-on-demand (POD) publishing, a technology aided by the rise in popularity of digitization of physical material.  POD refers to the technology and business model in which physical books are printed in small quantities, in some cases even a single copy (Dougherty, 2009).  Both small and large presses can use this technology to quickly print material (Dougherty, 2009).  The traditional library practice has been to acquire large amounts of physical material, which is mostly selected by librarians in the hopes that they will be used by patrons.  This is sometimes referred to as a “just-in-case” model (Anderson, 2010, p.40).  POD allows libraries to acquire the material they need, the amount they need and at the time a patron requests it; this is referred to as the “just-in-time” model (Anderson, 2010, p. 40).  Many libraries are also using POD in order to print copies of material from their special collections, student theses and material to supplement textbooks.  This paper will offer a look at the literature on POD in libraries as well as current usage in libraries today, potential future uses and the challenges and issues that still require resolution.

Literature Review  

            Much of the literature surrounding POD focuses on its implementation in the academic library setting, which is not to say the public libraries are not also making use of this technology. David Lewis (2013) includes POD with other trends such as digitization and open access publishing that he claims are about to dramatically shift the way academic libraries collect material.  He also claims that the “ultimate expression of print-on-demand (POD) may be the Espresso Book Machine (EBM),” which can instantly “print and bind books for a penny a page” (p.164). Barbara Blummer (2005) lists several universities that have either partnered with POD presses or used their own presses to adopt the POD model with successful programs.  For example, The University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Research Library partnered with Brookhaven Press to produce printed copies of material from its historic collections (Blummer, 2005). 

            There are also the lucky libraries that have been able to acquire the above mentioned EBM and have published their experiences with the machines.  Rick Anderson (2010) explains how the University of Utah’s Marriott Library was able to acquire the machine and the many uses and setbacks they found along the way.  Likewise, Terri Geitgey (2011) published an article about the University of Michigan’s experiences with one of the earliest EBM models.  Both will be discussed later.

Print-on-Demand in Libraries          

            POD has been around since the 1990s, but some stumbling blocks kept it from being a particularly attractive concept to libraries (Blummer, 2005).  Today, libraries are taking advantage of the improved technology to develop their collections.  For example, libraries can take advantage of the small quantities that presses are able to put for “replacing damaged or lost books from a collection” (Dougherty, 2009, p.184).  Ingram (2014) offers libraries a wide catalog of content through Lightning Source, which “seamlessly links Print on Demand to the industry’s largest distribution network” (Print On Demand Distribution, para. 1).  While many libraries have long since been digitizing their rare and historical collections, they can now offer this material to patrons who have a preference for a printed monograph by using their own presses or partnering with commercial print on demand services, or is some cases, both.  Before purchasing their EBM, the University of Michigan utilized their Scholarly Publishing Office to offer POD for items that had been digitized for preservation (Blummer, 2005). 

            The few libraries that have purchased their own EBMs are also finding creative ways to offer POD services.  The EBM is produced by On Demand Books (2013) and through its EspressNet offers “seven million in-copyright and public-domain titles” (EBM Overview, para. 1).  The Marriott Library of the University of Utah purchased their EBM in 2009 in order to move towards a “just-in-time” modal of acquiring books and to offer access to their rare materials (Anderson, 2010).  They also print blank books to demonstrate the machine and offer gifts to visitors and have had success printing and selling calendars with pictures of pieces from their Special Collections (Anderson, 2010).  The University of Michigan hosted the first EBM in a university setting, though had a well-developed POD system in place (Geitgey, 2011).  They offer printings of books from their own digitized collection as well as those from their partnership with Google Books (Geitgey, 2011).

Potential for Print-On-Demand

            Clearly, a huge potential for POD usage is collection development.  Libraries that can utilize the just-in-time model for acquisitions can also move towards a “patron-driven over librarian driven-acquisition” in which patrons can “truly have access to any book they need” (Anderson, 2010, p. 40).  In addition to adding to the library’s collection, the POD model (especially with an EBM) can be used to print supplementary course material and library reports (Geitgey, 2011).  The University of Sydney would also like to develop on demand services for other media as well “such as video, audio…and scholarly commentary incorporated into a streaming or DVD product” (Blummer, 2005, p.45).

            Others have suggested that POD can replace interlibrary loan programs since the cost of lending material is increasing, while the cost of POD is decreasing (Wilson-Higgins, 2011).  Making this idea seem more plausible is the access a library would have to the network of digital material that presses could print (Wilson-Higgins, 2011).  Wilson-Higgins (2011) concludes that a network of libraries with access to material would be necessary, but the potential cost means this is likely not an exact substitution for interlibrary loan.    

Challenges/Issues           

            While POD might drive the costs of some material down with publishers no longer having to accept returned material and pay to store large quantities of stock, the investment for organizations to conduct their own POD can be considerable (Wilson-Higgins, 2011).  This is especially true for libraries investing in an EBM, which can cost upwards of $100,000 (Wilson-Higgins, 2011).  The technology is also still developing and Anderson (2010) admitted that the machine did sometimes have to work out glitches.  There are also the added costs of hiring and/or training staff members who can operate and maintain the equipment.  Wilson-Higgins (2011) also points out that in order to take advantage a great network material, the technological infrastructure must be in place to store and maintain the POD files, which are much larger than traditional print files. Finally, there is the concern of copyright.  Libraries must produce works that are in the public domain, or those to which they have the copyrights (Blummer, 2005).

 Conclusion

            Though the idea of POD has been around for a while, the technology will continue to improve offering libraries a range of options when developing their collections and offering access to their rare material.  There are some barriers to the technology, such as copyright and cost, I believe that libraries should try to find ways to take advantage of this improving technology.  A service that could quickly place material in the hands of patrons when they desire it could be a huge advantage to libraries.

References

Anderson, R. (2010). The Espresso Book Machine: The Marriott Library experience. Serials, 23(1), 39-42.

Blummer, B. (2005). Opportunities for libraries with print-on-demand publishing. Journal of Access Services, 3(2), 41-54. doi:10.1300/J204v03n02-04

Dougherty, W. C. (2009). Managing Technology: Print on demand: What librarians should know. Journal Of Academic Librarianship, 35(2), 184-186.

Geitgey, T. T. (2011). The University of Michigan Library Espresso Book Machine experience. Library Hi Tech, 29(1), 51-61. doi:10.1108/07378831111116895

Ingram Content Group. (2014). Print on demand distribution.  Retrieved from http://www.ingramcontent.com/Pages/Print-on-Demand.aspx

Lewis, D. (2013). From stacks to the web: The transformation of academic library collecting. College & Research Libraries, 74(2), 159-176.

On Demand Books. (2013). The EBM technology. Retrieved from http://ondemandbooks.com/ebm_overview.php

Wilson-Higgins, S. S. (2011). Could print on-demand actually be the “new interlibrary loan”?. Interlending & Document Supply, 39(1), 5-8. doi:10.1108/02641611111112093

Give Me A Number

Here is some inspiring information, and I love info-graphics.

Retrieved from: http://ebookfriendly.com/2012/11/16/library-librarians-infographic/

Digital Wallpaper

I love my e-reader, but...

Much conversation these days revolves around the push towards digital material in libraries, especially academic.  I think there are many book lovers who enjoy the ease and access to ebooks, but also feel that special attachment to our physical material.  Plus, it can be a hassle to lend your ebooks to a friend.  A European company, Vodafone has come up with a possible solution (in addition to sponsoring one of my favorite Formula 1 teams, McLaren): Digital Wallpaper.  This technology lets you build a catalog of all of your digital books and then you can custom design a "bookcase" holding all of your titles.  What arrives in the mail is physical wallpaper that you can put up in your house that has your titles printed on it. 

If that wasn't cool enough...

Each "book" comes with a QR code on the "spine."  Your friends can simply scan the code with their mobile device, and borrow the title!  Now it's easy to spot the drawbacks of this system.  What if you buy new books?  You won't be able to instantly add them to your "bookshelf, " and the material is limited, however, I think it's a fun and innovative way to display your digital catalog!

Work, Work, Work

We have started the discussion about the skills we're learning in our course work and if and how we can apply them to obtaining a professional library position.  These discussions reminded me of another blog, that I mostly follow through twitter.  It's called Hiring Librarians and it mostly comprises short interviews with librarians and administrators that are in a position to hire within the library.  Other interviews are with applicants looking for LIS work.  Some of them make for very interesting reads, I recommend you check them out!

Content Management Systems: University Librarian Interview

What follows is the transcript of the interview that I conducted via email with an academic librarian about her usage of a Content Management System.

Interview Transcript

Corradino:  How and where did you hear about CMSs?           

Ms. Librarian:  I heard about CMSs when I worked at [a public state university]. We did not have a content management system, and employees either coded by hand in notepad or wordpad or used Dreamweaver. Because there was a steep learning curve for either coding or using Dreamweaver properly, when CMSs came out, such as Drupal or Expression Engine, there was always talk of migrating to a CMS in order to streamline and simplify website updates. 

 Corradino:  What were your motivations to adopt the CMS for its current use (library website or any other purpose?) 

Ms. Librarian:  In my current position, the University as a whole requires using a CMS if you are authorized to make edits to your department’s website. So, it came with the job.    

    

Corradino:  What is the name of CMS you are using now?

Ms. Librarian:  OU Campus, which according to OminUpdate’s website “is the leading web content management system for higher education institutions.” OmniUpdate is the company’s name.

Corradino:  Please describe your responsibilities and/or usage of the CMS?  How often do you work with the CMS?     

  

Ms. Librarian:  I used the CMS to redesign the library’s home page and to create secondary pages in a pre-determined template. Most of the content for the secondary pages came from the old website with some updates. Depending on what projects I’m working on, I may work within the CMS a great deal during the week, such as off and on throughout the day, or I might go a few weeks without needing to work on web pages. Some of our pages were created outside of the content management system by an outside contractor because the pre-determined template did not offer a horizontal navigational bar, which we wanted to include on the libraries’ home page (there are three home pages, one unifying home page and one for each library; there are two libraries at the university in which I work).

Corradino:  Are there any advantages or benefits of the CMS you are using now?  Are there any features you really like?

Ms. Librarian:  A CMS is good for employees who just need to make updates to pages with straight-forward information, such as a staff directory. The OUCampus interface looks and behaves very much like the LibGuides interface, so it may be a good CMS for librarians to use. I code by hand within the CMS, meaning that I switch to HTML view and type in code.  I really like having access to CSS stylings that are pre-determined and easy to apply. For example, I can easily create a tabbed search box, accordions, and other “fancy” features by adding code that my institution has made available via a website. Correctly applying this code, however, sometimes requires coding experience, so the average user might get frustrated with this while I really enjoy it.

Corradino:  Are there any disadvantages or features you don’t like and why?

Ms. Librarian:  When you “publish” a page, the interface will sometimes make changes to code that it doesn’t understand, so, for example, sometimes it “breaks” the code for the RSS feed, and we have to go back in and fix it.

Corradino:  How is the learning curve?  Do you think your CMS is “user-friendly?”

Ms. Librarian:  The learning curve will differ depending on the person’s background. Anyone with coding experience can easily use this CMS; anyone with experience creating pages in LibGuides would have an advantage as well. It’s user-friendly for the most part for me, but another person might have trouble with it.

Corradino:  Given the choice, would you stay with your current CMS, or choose another, or none at all?  Why?

Ms. Librarian:  Because I don’t have experience with another CMS, it’s difficult to answer this question. What I would like, instead, is the choice of more templates. But those would have to be created by university IT.

Corradino:  Please feel free to add any additional opinions, information or advice.

Ms. Librarian:  I would advise anyone who wants to create web pages to learn basic HTML and CSS. Even if you use a content management system, if you know code, troubleshooting problems is much easier.

Interview Reflection

Throughout my time working on my Master of Library and Information Science, one theme has been resoundingly clear: learn as many technology skills as you can, you are going to need them.  A library’s web page is such an integral part of delivering information to patrons, that library professionals must acquire some of the necessary skills to create and maintain them.  A quick scan of professional librarian positions will also give you an indication of how valuable these skills are to making yourself a marketable candidate.  While studying applied technology in libraries, we have been discussing Content Management Systems (CMS) which are programs that allow even the novice user the ability to create a web page.  One does not need to know any programming languages or code in order to add and edit content as they are mostly WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs.  I recently had the pleasure of communicating with a librarian from a Georgia public university about her usage of the university Content Management System (CMS).  She uses the CMS to upload and maintain content on the library’s webpage.  She declined to have her name listed publicly, so to protect her identity, I will refer to her as Ms. Librarian.  Ms. Librarian does have coding experience and working knowledge of HTML and CSS.  

Content Management Systems (CMS) are something that I have only recently begun to learn about, though I have been glad to get the experience working with these programs.  Ms. Librarian mentions that before organizations started utilizing CMSs, employees had to hand code their webpages.  Considering that this probably took a considerable amount of time if employees did not already have these skills, it is no surprise that many organizations are choosing to use a CMS instead of developing a webpage from scratch.  She also mentions that in her current position, the university requires employees to use the CMS to add content to their department’s page.  This does seem advantageous for the university, because they can easily ensure some amount of uniformity to all the site pages.  

Ms. Librarian’s university uses the OminUpdate product, OU Campus, so I checked out their website.  You have to create an account in order to watch the videos, but you can learn some basic information about the features of the products.  I have worked a little with Joomla!, and this product appears to be very similar, only tailored for universities.  Course catalogs and faculty directories are some typical feature one would certainly expect to find on a university webpage, and can be incorporated in the OU Campus CMS.  On the back end, users are able to view analytics which provide statistics on the pages such as the number of views and visitors.  Ms. Librarian also stated that the templates were similar to LibGuides, which I know many librarians have probably had some exposure to.  She also states that sometimes her coding knowledge does come in handy when working with the CMS.  I had the same experience working with Joomla!.  I never needed to switch to the “code view,” but knowing what was going on “behind the scenes,” made me feel like working with the program was a little easier.  In fact, I often find myself these days on web pages and looking at their source code to see how they accomplished something.    

Finally, Ms. Librarian closed with some advice: learn to code, at least the basics.  This certainly echoes a lot of my library graduate school experience.  Last semester I took an information architecture class and learned how to work with HTML and CSS.  It was my first experience with any kind of coding or web page building and I loved it.  I wish that I had taken the class sooner, because it made something that had felt so abstract and outside of my skill set, seem possible for me to accomplish.  All in all, I am glad I got the chance to discuss CMSs with Ms. Librarian because it gave me an idea of how much this is a part of her everyday work flow.  Now that I have had some experience working with a CMS, I am even gladder because these are skills that I too, will likely have to employ in my career.  Who know, perhaps there is a technology degree in my future as well!

Please find the interview document here. 

  

Print On Demand!

As we've been discussing emerging technology in libraries, the subject of 3D printing has been great fodder for discussion.  It also reminded me of the print-on-demand machines that can create library quality books in a matter of minutes.  This is definitely a technology that I can see patrons at my public library taking advantage of! 

Check out the video here.

Libraries As Technology Independant?

This week we have been discussing emerging technology in libraries and one theme that I find really interesting, is that library professionals need to start taking control of their technological futures.  By this, I mean that libraries have such a stake in their technological capability, that it seems logical that they would take the development and management of that technology in to their own hands.  Hiring and retaining IT professionals should be a priority for library administrators.  Learning new, or improving existing, technology skills should be a priority for existing library pros.  But how?  I know I don’t have the answer, but this is definitely an area for future study that I would like to pursue.