Picture a network of scanners, printers, and servers around the country, in local bookshops and photocopy shops, that digitally 'teleprints' and binds single copies of books for customers on demand, while keeping track of copyright holders and royalty payments.
An experiment in scanning fragile books and using the images for inter-library loans between universities has led to the Xerox Documents on Demand system. Some 107 clients have signed up, led by universities such as Harvard, Cornell and Yale. One way that the system is being used is to create customised books for courses.
On-site manufacture of books has been made possible with the arrival of inexpensive laser printers which can now print 20 typeset quality pages a minute. Low cost binderies are just around the corner. In the near future bookstores will still be browsing places, but when a customer decides to make a purchase, whether at a bookstore or local photocopy shop, the information in the book will be transmitted from a distant computer and printed out there and then.
For a slightly higher charge the customer will be able to choose the print size and style. From an environmental point of view, on-site manufacture is extremely efficient. Transportation costs for instance will be drastically cut. Warehouse costs will also plummet.
Xerox officials also envisage a day when their machines will scan and sort much of the vast mountain of paperwork that fills corporate, government and academic file cabinets, warehouses and libraries.
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