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Brewster Kahle gave the Extreme Tech an update on the Internet Bookmoble project, which prints out books in the pubic domain. The project is a hit in Egypt and India, among other places. Just as noteworthy, however, was Kahle’s comparison of the bookmobile costs with those of the Harvard Library.

Since the Eldred v. Ashcroft ruling that grants term extensions to existing copyrighted works, fewer works have been filtering into the public domain. “Almost nothing is going into the public domain now,” Kahle said. “So the idea was to have something tangible to show people the books that were in the public domain like Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz and print them out for a dollar.”

That’s a dollar less that what it costs the Harvard Library to lend out its books. Since the idea of reading books online is something that has still not taken root, the concept of cheaply reproducing books especially classics is a welcome one. Kahle’s motto–”universal access to all human knowledge,” might be idealistic, but it is a concept many developing countries like India, China and Egypt are starting to adopt.

The dollar gap could grow wider if you do without paper–which improved e-book technology will help make possible for more and more readers. Meanwhile, at the very least, the Bookmobile is a great example of transitional technology.

Additonal thoughts: Yes, lending costs at local libraries are probably less than at Harvard, and a TeleRead-style approach would hardly do away with local branches–paper book aren’t going to vanish tomorrow, and libraries will always be useful as centers of community life. Still, imagine the potential economies from e-books.

 
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