BnF and Hachette Livre sign deal on print-on-demand

The Bibliothèque nationale de France and Hachette Livre have signed an agreement pertaining to the printing on demand of works available in the Gallica digital library developed by the BnF.

The deal involves an initial selection of almost 15,000 out-of-copyright titles which will be printed and sold by Hachette Livre through bookstores. These titles were selected amongst the 270,000 digitized by Gallica, the BnF’s digitral libray.

Print on demand is a digital technology that allows the printing of a single copy of any book, its quality comparable to that of the initial print run, within hours of receiving the order from a customer. Lightning Source France, the company jointly owned by Hachette Livre and Lightning Source, the American worldwide leader of print on demand, will do the printing at its Maurepas facility. As the facility is located within Hachette Livre’s giant book distribution center, the books printed on demand will be delivered to bookstores within the same time frame as regular books pulled from inventory.

Pricing will be at the low end, with retail ranging from 12 to 15 euros for a mid-size volume.

The service will be available as of September of 2011.

The deal is non-exclusive and will coexist with others as the BnF seeks to diversify outlets for its digital content.