counter recession
“January 21, 2009 ñ RPI (www.rpiprint.com), a leader in automated, mass-customized manufacturing and fulfillment for the consumer print-on-demand market, today announced that it has set an industry record through the production of more than 1.3 million photo books in 2008. This brings its overall production tally to three million photo books since the productís launch, representing a 60 percent year-over-year growth.”
The POD machine is also advancing as indicated by the next generation, 4 color Expresso. This assembly is now smaller than the old Docutech. These will soon be propogated to near-endusers. The paper book unlike the screen book is not starting from a zero base. Curiously the sector now grows as it contracts, and the products are monographically much better positioned. This is the future of the book as contrasted with the SiFi book of the future.
Meanwhile printing plants are economy buffered with conversion from off-set to copier production. “The HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press delivers 120 high-quality four-color A4-size pages per minute for customers in general commercial, direct-marketing, photo merchandise, and book and publications printing. For high-print volume customers, the HP Indigo 7000 offers a total cost of ownership that significantly increases the break-even point of digital against conventional printing.” Fiscal 2008 was the best year ever for HP Graphics.
midwinter
You can start by saying that Google Print has not impacted preservation at all and then go on to describe all the ways in which it has. It turns out that an exterior activity is changing the name and nature of preservation.
There is the mechanical processing including the staging. Here the high density storage building can change its function to act as the trans-shipment point, a vital link in the paper to screen reformat. This same processing moves in reverse creating a different ìbrittle booksî backlog based not on deteriorated paper but on features of scanner de-selection.
Another revamping emerges as image authentication and full text verification is relegated to the end-user. The long legacy of Preservation department microfilm Q.C. appears to have been eclipsed. The very precept of self-authentication of print, as contrasted with their screen images, appears discounted.
This issue is much larger than books alone. Authentication has larger importance as touch-screen voting and computer managed third party investment derivatives have demonstrated. Systems of governance and finance, as well as research library resources, require self-confirming values. The copy confirmed by the preservation department could include a colophon beyond use of stable media. The colophon could also say; ìauthenticated against a known and safely retained exemplarî.
Finally there is the change of name. Preservation department is politically weak. ìLong-termî access department is even worse, suggesting all that is conveyed is old stuff. The live on-line resources are not encompassed. Perhaps the new wave name is ìsustainable accessî department. That would be SAD as is the discard of ìlibraryîname.