The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
This question was inspired by the Espresso Book Machine that I saw in my library news feeds a while back: It allows for immediate print-on-demand sales of titles that the library might be unwilling to devote shelf-space to or for people who might prefer to mark in their books. However, I'm not sure that libraries want to get involved in book sales (outside of Friends activities; might this be set up by the Friends?), and I don't know if there's a reasonable selection of such machines or items in their catalog(s). Does anyone have enough information on these points and any I might not be thinking of to present a reasonable pro/con list and recommendation for or against the concept?
Remember to back your answers with facts!
Possibly relevant question: Would having a self-service kiosk or "vending machine" apparatus be an effective after-hours strategy?
What type of library?
I doubt it'd be worthwhile in most public libraries when you start considering space, power, training and maintenance costs. You likely couldn't use this for self-service, as the configuration shown in the video leaves most of the parts accessible for maintenance -- you'd either have to have someone bring the books to the patrons as they're finished, or you'd have to create some sort of shrouding to protect the machine (and people) from each other, but removable for servicing.
As for the whole 'facts' thing ... I have no idea what the specifications are for this machine. However, I have worked printing presses before ... and I'd estimate that to be safe, you'd want 3 to 4 feet of clearance around all sides for maintenance. It'd need to be in a back room ... and at our local branch, the only way we could pull that off would be giving up a conference room, as they didn't build in any space that didn't have an intended purpose.
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It's possible that it might be worthwhile in an academic library, as a service for people needing to print their thesis, if there wasn't a print shop nearby that already met the need. It could also be a value added service for an 'institutional repository', to deal with issues like ILL if there were restrictions on distributing digital copies.
I could also see a possible use in corporate / research libraries, as there are some people who prefer to read on paper or like marking up in the book, and I'd assume that corporate libraries would be more willing to spend discressionary money on what is a convenience, but not a necessity. (of course, they could also buy lots of tables to loan out)