Sacramento Public Library Installs an Espresso Book Machine

[PRESS RELEASE] SACRAMENTO, CA and NEW YORK, NY — On October 17, the Sacramento Public Library installed the Espresso Book Machine (r), a Xerox Solution (EBM), in its Central Branch location downtown. This revolutionary book-publishing technology will enable the Library's patrons to purchase and print on-demand their choice of millions of public-domain and out-of-print volumes as well as an ever-expanding array of current titles from leading publishers. Patrons will also be able to publish and print their own self-published work on the EBM.

The EBM is the only digital-to-print at retail solution on the market. Within minutes, the EBM produces a bookstore quality paperback with color cover, in any standard trim size, at point of sale. The content is fed to the machine via EspressNet, On Demand Books' growing digital network of over seven million titles.

Much like an iTunes for books, EspressNet retrieves, encrypts, transmits, and catalogues books from a multitude of English and foreign language content providers (including public domain, in copyright, and self-published). Through the SelfEspress software, writers can format, design, edit, and upload their book for printing into a physical book and for inclusion on the EBM catalog; it will soon also be able to convert the print file to the .epub format suitable for e-readers.

The EBM provides a new sales channel for publishers and vastly increases the availability of titles for physical bookstores, significantly reducing loss of sales due to books being out-of-stock. Also, the EBM technology offers libraries and bricks-and-mortar retailers the opportunity to become community self-publishing centers, providing a new distribution platform for self-published authors. Finally, EBM improves overall efficiency and environmental sustainability by eliminating shipping and the return and pulping of unwanted books.

Xerox manages the worldwide marketing, sales and service for the EBM, which is powered by the Xerox 4112(r) Copier/Printer that prints, binds and trims bookstore-quality paperbacks with color covers. Xerox also offers the ProfitAccelerator(r) EBM Essentials kit that provides marketing and sales tips - as well as a "how to" guide familiarizing owners with technical aspects of the solution.