HP, U-M partner to make rare books more readily available

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | Source: Concentrate

The University of Michigan partnership with Google to scan the university's libraries of books and translate them onto the World Wide Web is what grabs headlines. But U-M's spin-off partnership with HP on the project could be what's really innovative.

The university and the Silicon Valley-based corporation have struck a deal that will make 500,000 rare and hard-to-find books available for sale through HP BookPrep – a cloud computing service that enables the on-demand printing of books.

"The idea is to have a book where the print and type setting looks like its 100 years old but it's cleaned up," says Paul Courant, dean of libraries for the University of Michigan.

When Google scans a book it does so with the idea that will be read online. HP and the university will use a new technology that allows for an individual printing of that book on order so a hard copy can shipped to the customer. The big hurdle is the screen print doesn't necessarily translate to hardcover.

"When Google is scanning it optimizing the pages for the screen," says Maria Bonn, director of the Scholarly Publishing Office at the University of Michigan. "What is good for the screen isn't necessarily good for the reprint."

HP and the university will clean up the tattered pages and make them readable. The idea is users will be able to read an almost identical book that the original reader enjoyed but on new paper.

Source: Paul Courant, dean of libraries for the University of Michigan and Maria Bonn, director of scholarly publishing office at the University of Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke

HP, U-M partner to make rare books more readily available

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