Selling access to the digital collections, as Cincinnati is doing, may be just around the corner. The university will receive a portion of the profits, which Mr. Gaynor hopes will help pay for new preservation projects. Cornell University has set up a similar partnership with Primary Source Media, in Woodbridge, Conn., which is starting a publishing project called Rare Books Online. In such deals, says Frank Menchaca, editorial director of Primary Source Media, libraries can earn 10 to 20 per cent of the selling price. Not everything in a rare-books library is marketable, says Virginia's Mr. Gaynor.
Some materials are too obscure.
But before university officials start dreaming of sales contracts and revenue streams, librarians warn, they must realize that these publishing projects can be very expensive, even if commercial companies cover the marketing and sales costs. Some digitizing projects are possible only with grants. That can't be replaced. Those experiences are still free, except for the costs that researchers incur in traveling to see the collections. It is not yet clear that the rare-book libraries' new products will actually bring in a substantial amount of money.