Barnes & Noble Inc said yesterday it has partnered with IBM Corp to provide it with technology and management for a process that prints books on demand for customers at its retail stores and from its web site. Under the deal, IBM will provide Barnes & Noble with printing and workflow technologies, servers, and software for electronic book management and distribution.
The print-on-demand process is a new way of printing books speedily and cost efficiently in less than five minutes, IBM says. As part of the deal, IBM will also provide on-site management at a content distribution center in Jamesburg, New Jersey that will become operational in mid-2000. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. In January, Barnes & Noble will begin working with publishers to build a digital library. Books will be scanned into the print-on-demand system, or provided in PDF format.
Barnes & Noble is going digital in a big way, said Stephen Riggio, vice chairman of Barnes & Noble. Our new deal with IBM will enable us to convert massive amounts of content in a fast and efficient manner into high-quality printed and electronic books.
Customers will be able to order books electronically via PCs, wireless handheld devices, and laptops, Barnes & Noble said. It added that it expects the technology to enable the company to increase its selection by 500,000 titles within five years. The agreement for IBM’s print-on-demand services extend to iUniverse.com, a publishing portal of which Barnes & Noble owns 49%.
