Sometimes life leads down unexpected paths.

Research of Hugh Pennal (see Wood County Monitor Oct 1, 2020, “Pennal ran his way to football fame and much more”) and efforts to obtain a photograph of him in his football-playing days led to the Texas State Historical Association website. 

Browsing through historical photos in their collection surfaced a photograph titled, “A Baptism near Mineola – Summer 1935.”

That photograph had become somewhat well-known and has been reproduced on t-shirts and coffee mugs. The photographer, Alan Lomax, was to become famous as a musicologist. He is widely credited with building the largest collection of recorded folk music in the world. 

As a young man, Alan accompanied his father, John Avery Lomax, on a trip from Austin through East Texas. The senior Lomax was employed by the University of Texas as a folklorist and was on a fact-finding mission when his son, Alan, snapped some photos of a baptism near Mineola. 

Further research revealed that John had authored a book, “The Book of Texas,” a snapshot of the state and its people in 1916. 

Having already tagged “A Baptism near Mineola” as a subject for a future feature article, the book was purchased through Schuler Books of Grand Rapids, Mich. to gain insight into the Lomax family. 

In a fascinating process, the long out-of-print book was reprinted after purchase by On Demand Books. The key component in this process was an amazing device – the Espresso Book Machine.

The Espresso Book Machine (EBM) prints, covers, binds and trims a soft cover book of up to 300 pages within minutes of a demand signal. 

There are 23 EBMs in the United States, most located at major universities. The University of Texas houses the only EBM in the state, appropriately named the Burnt Orange Book Machine.

The utility of such a machine has had worldwide appeal. Presently, EBMs are also located in Canada, Egypt, France, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.    

“We are doing something – imprinting words on paper -- which is 500 years old,” explained co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of On Demand Books Thor Sigvaldason. He detailed that what is unique about the service is the near instantaneous production of a book at the point of demand. 

“The potential for producing books from digital files literally on-demand is limitless,” Sigvaldason commented. He admitted that the revolution has not yet sparked into open flame, but is yet evolving.  

The genesis of On Demand Books traces back to long-time book publisher Jason Epstein. In a commentary coincident with his retirement from Random House, Epstein lamented the demise of small mom-and-pop bookstores across the country. 

He suggested developing a means by which small bookstores could print a book from public domain digital files.

As Epstein wrote, “I hankered for a true revolution, one that would maximize the world market for books and create unprecedented new efficiencies for publishers.” 

The idea had been born. 

On Demand Books was promptly founded, and within five years Schuler Books purchased one of the very first EBMs.

The machine itself resembles a Xerox D95 copier – Xerox has been one of several manufacturers contracted by On Demand Books. An additional frame houses the propriety mechanisms which turn a high-quality copier into a publishing house.

Sigvaldason said that several patents have been filed for the publishing end of the machine. 

According to veteran bookseller Pierre Camy, it was first thought that researchers and academics would be the most robust market for use of the EBM.

Camy, a 20-year veteran bookseller at Schuler commented, “The ability to finally acquire a long out-of-print book had massive appeal for researchers of all kinds. However, now the bulk of our users are people interested in self-publishing a small quantity run of a book that they have authored.” 

Genealogy and hobby books are the most popular subjects for this recent interest in self-publishing, Camy noted. 

EBM use will certainly transform over time. Perhaps the most impactful variable influencing its future is Google’s efforts to create a digital library of the estimated 130 million books in the world today.

The project, begun 15 years ago, has, according to Google, assimilated 40 million books in digital format. The initial scanning effort was a deluge of books, freely given by some of the world’s most prestigious libraries. 

The project has slowed as Google’s actions have been challenged in court. The publishing standards of fair use, public domain and authors’ copyright have been central to these challenges. 

In the most recent development, the Supreme Court refused to hear a lower court case, thus allowing a lower court ruling in favor of Google to stand. In short, the scanning of copyrighted material has been ruled not to violate copyright laws. 

The opposing party in that case, The Authors’ Guild, has committed to continue fighting for full enforcement of copyright protections. 

Regardless of copyright determinations, as the pool of available books grows, so too will the customer base of the Espresso Book Machine. 

As Sigvaldason noted, “The EBM is all about location and content.”

He explained that as locations increase and content grows, EBMs could become standard equipment throughout society. 

And what of the “Baptism near Mineola?”

It is requested that readers help in identifying the people and location of this photo, thus bringing this story full circle. 

If anyone recognizes those in the photo, please contact the Wood County Monitor at woodctystringer@gmail.com.