TextStream: Baker & Taylor's Print on Demand Service
Offset printing, short print runs, and maintaining inventory for specialized academic publications have long been expensive propositions for scholarly publishers. Because of this, more and more publishers are turning to print on demand (POD), particularly for short run publications and to fulfill intermittent single orders for titles. YBP's parent company, Baker & Taylor, has established a digital Print on Demand Center at one of its distribution centers, in Momence, Illinois. RR Donnelley, the world's premier provider of print-related services, is managing that center. Other POD centers will be established in other Baker & Taylor distribution centers. This on-site facility combines with other RR Donnelley Digital Print facilities to provide digital printing and binding capabilities for Baker & Taylor's publisher partners and for our customers worldwide. The Digital POD Center allows YBP customers to order on-demand books via GOBI and be assured of rapid fulfillment. This new POD service from Baker & Taylor is known as TextStream. We will ensure that the print quality of books produced via TextStream is at the level of offset printing.
TextStream books are supplied within the library's usual workflow. Currently, all TextStream titles show a status of "In Stock" in GOBI, and thus the service is largely invisible to customer libraries. This service provides value to our libraries in that they see more inventory from major academic and university press publishers, and will always promptly receive ordered books. Fulfillment rates will continue to improve, and fulfillment times will continue to decrease, as POD title availability continues to grow. We sign up new publishers and add content to TextStream every day.
For more information, or to request a sample TextStream POD book, please contact YBP.