June 30 |
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Newspapers-on-Demand @ Your Library
Source: American Libraries Online
It's funny how we first became aware of all this. Last year a tourist must have walked into the library to look around, and wound up in our newspaper reading gallery with a newspaper he had brought in with him. And once he'd finished reading it, he must have left his newspaper behind. When we saw it, we couldn't believe it. It was unlike any other newspaper we had seen. It was printed on 11×17-inch paper, and was distributed by a company called NewspaperDirect, but otherwise seemed to have all the content of a regular newspaper. When we saw that NewspaperDirect was a local company, we decided to investigate."
This is the way Thomas Long, a librarian in the Vancouver (British Columbia) Public Library's Newspapers and Magazines Division, describes how VPL library staff first became aware of NewpaperDirect's print-on-demand service. What he learned when he contacted the company was that since 1999 it has offered a service to hotels, cruise ships, retail outlets, and corporations that allows a customer to instantly print the latest edition of dozens of newspapers from around the world. What NewpaperDirect learned was they might very well have a market opportunity with libraries.
As a result of Long's initiative, in December 2002 NewspaperDirect installed a printer in the main branch of VPL and arranged a pilot project based on cost-recovery pricing that for both the company and the library represented a marketing test bed. "What the VPL is doing is quite different from NewspaperDirect's other customers, who offer print-on-demand," said Long. "We treat this like a subscription, and have selected a core group of papers based on a survey of our users. The main attraction for us right now is to provide timely access at an affordable cost."
As a result of the test, VPL has a print-on-demand newspaper service it is very pleased with and NewpaperDirect has developed pricing and marketing targeted to libraries. If a library uses its own printer, NewspaperDirect charges a one-time fee of $500, which includes print-station setup and configuration as well as training. Each edition of any newspaper printed on demand will cost between 80 cents and $1.10, depending on how many copies are printed per month. There is a minimum charge of $110 per month. Technical support and newspaper-roster updates come with the service at no extra charge. Special hardware pricing can be arranged if the library wishes to obtain printers from NewspaperDirect as well.
A library can choose to use the service to print out regular daily editions of newspapers that are always in demand—as VPL has so far chosen to do—or it can choose to print out editions on demand from a roster of about 170 titles (and growing steadily) for newspapers that are requested only occasionally. "Not only does printing-on-demand get the most recent edition into the hands of patrons days faster than many of our preprinted newspaper subscriptions," said Long. "In some cases it is even cheaper, especially when you consider that the Sunday edition is the same price as other days."
Back issues may be made available for selected titles, depending on what NewspaperDirect can negotiate with publishers. The company is also negotiating with publishers to enable the back page of each newspaper edition to be reserved for customized news or information created by the library.
For more information on NewspaperDirect's pricing and services, visit www.newspaperdirect.com.
David Dorman
American Libraries Columnist
Library consultant for the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, Illinois
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