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Q: Last week, Kirtas Technologies joined forces with BookSurge, an Amazon.com subsidiary, to preserve rare books at universities and public libraries and distribute them via BookSurge's print-on-demand service. How did the deal come about?
A: As the established stewards of information, libraries and universities are being challenged daily by the overwhelming impact of the Internet. They're torn between a proven 500-year model of preservation and access revolving around the physical book, and an emerging but debatable model revolving around the electronic version of that same book. The uniquely attractive aspect of this deal is that the digitization of the book enhances, rather than marginalizes, the physical book, while adding the benefit of the electronic access to that same book. It builds...