From the University Presses -- The Hidden Digital Revolution in Scholarly Publishing: POD, SRDP, the "Long Tail," and Open Access

Abstract

The article discusses how digital technology has affected the scholarly publishing trade. The author comments on the promotion of electronic books (e-books) and e-book readers and notes speculation that e-books would replace traditional books. The document management firm Xerox Corporation created a publishing system called the DocuTech Production Publisher, which was used by the publishing firm Lightning Source to provide print-on-demand (POD) services to scholarly presses such as Penn State Press to ensure books never went out of print. Short-run digital printing (SRDP), allows publishers to order small print runs of books, eliminating unsold stock. The digitization of books by the Internet browser firm Google is noted.