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What is in the Internet Archive Bookmobile?



Hardware

retail cost (after discount) comment
Ford Aerostar $3500 $3500  
painting the car $1000 $1000 volunteers did the design
table/chairs/canopy $200 $200  

bookmaking: (costs $1 to make a public domain book)
printer: HP4600dn color laser
model C9661A
$2500 $0 thank you HP!
hp deskjet 3420 $80 $80 for covers
binder: fastback model 8 $1200 $1200 for one-at-a-time paperback binding (perfect binding) fastback.com
cutter: Triumph 3905 $1000 $1000 manual cutter
laptops (4) of HP onmibook 510 $2500 each $0 thank you HP!
1 as server, 3 for kids
model F4733JT
(could have been lower end)

scanner for uploading contributed books:
hp scanjet 4470cxi ( C9883A ) $150 $0  

networking:
satellite IP connection hardware: $7000 $6000 motosat.com
installer: www.atminfo.com
Basic subscription fees start at $99.99 a month.
linksys wireless router $125 $125 linksys.com
generator: Honda EU2000i $860 $860 2000 watts seems like plenty hondapowerequipment.com

Therefore it cost us about $14,000 and one month to build the bookmobile. Thank you to HP for donating the computer equipment.

Printing public domain books

The one-time costs are here (without mobility):

We believe you can set this up in an existing library or school for about $3k:

  • B/W duplex laser $700 retail
  • binder: $1200 retail
  • cutter: $800 retail

The color laser is $2500, nice but non-essential. Duplexing is almost essential, most people probably don't have this on hand. The computer is just a normal pc, so we assume people have this. It takes an inkjet to print the covers. We got a cheapo inkjet and suffered: we would get a $150-200 one next time, but again, we assume people have these.

The book costs

We say it is a "Buck a Book" or $1US per book as spelled out below. This means a library can give out books. The regular library circulation admin costs are higher than that to get a book back from borrowers and get it back on a shelf. People *loved* making and then getting a book.

The book is a letter sized sheet or a legal sized sheet cut in half. This is a good paper back book size. Therefore each sheet of letter paper has 2 pages on each side, or 4 book pages per sheet. A 240 page book, then would take 60 sheets of paper. The 240 page book would take 2 impressions with the laser printer (one for each side)

  • Paper: about $0.005 to $0.01/sheet (for really nice paper)
    $0.30 to $0.60 for paper for 240 page book
  • Toner: about $0.005 per impression
    $0.60 for toner for 240 page book
  • Cover: cover stock is $0.065 retail
    the ink on the cover does not amount to much

Therefore the book cost is $1.65-$2.00 for renewables for a 240 page book.

We say it is a "Buck a Book" because many of our books are shorter alice in wonderland, is 100 pages), and you can often get serious discounts or donations because of the mission.

How long does it take to print a book?

  • B/W duplex laser (20 pages/min, 10-20 min/book)
  • Binder: (about 3 minutes/book)
  • Cutter: (about 2 minutes/book)
  • Cover: (1-5 minutes/book>

Therefore we would make about 4-6 books/hr.

Software

The software that is loaded on the Bookmobile laptops (bookmobile02, bookmobile03, and bookmobile04) is as follows:
  • LizardTech's Djvu Reader
  • Night Kitchen's Tk3 Reader
  • Motosat's Data Storm (versions 168 beta and 178 beta)
  • Elecard's MPEG2 Video Player
  • Open Office v. 1.0.1
  • QuickTime v. 6

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