Bookstores are magical places. I've always liked hanging out in bookstores, but in another 5 or 10 years there may be no bookstores. They may end up going the way of blacksmith shops - into history.
It now seems almost certain that in the future all books will be digitized and only printed-to-order. When students at one of our local San Francisco colleges or universities needs a textbook they will go the the "information center" (they won't be called libraries anymore) and insert a debit card into the proper slot and use a key pad to enter the selection. Then the machine will come to life and start whirring, clicking and buzzing. The machine will retrieve the digital data, print the data onto book pages, print a full four-color cover, cut and trim the pages, bind the pages into the cover, and produce a library-quality book in minutes. It will be a book vending machine. No more expensive sinventory that takes up space on shelves.
The machine is already operational. To see the machine work and hear a full explanation from the manufacturers, watch this YouTube video:
0 comments:
Post a Comment