Talk about synchronicity. Was reading an article from John Cox yesterday for the Dec. 2008/January 2009 ATG and today the Chronicle of Higher Education (dated 5 December, 2008) has an article on the same topic! It’s about custom printing and the Espresso Book Machine which allows a book to be printed from a digital file in minutes. Several bookstores in Canada are using the technology (the machine costs a reported $144,000) including the University of Alberta Bookshop in Edmonton and McMaster University. Some issues encountered are copyright restrictions (a book currently in copyright cannot be reproduced, though the Canadian copyright “allows for more avenues for reproduction” than the U.S.) and, of course, servicing problems with the machine itself for which it can be difficult to find a repair person. Reportedly, the Alberta machine has been so successful that they are considering purchasing a second one. And the University of Michigan Library, part of the HathiTrust (reported in an earlier Rumors post in this space), purchased a machine from alumni funds in October! Do libraries have a role to play in this scenario? See -- “New Machines Reproduce Custom Books on Demand” by Lisa Guernsey. www.chronicle.com/weekly (password required)