The Harvard Book Store is having a contest to promote its new “Book ATM.”The Espresso Book Machine, made by On Demand Books, can print a 300-page, library-quality paperback will full-color cover in about four minutes. (Watch how it works.)

The machine is about the size of an large industrial copier. (I suspect later versions will get smaller.) On Demand Books signed an agreement this month with Google to have access to print more than two-million public-domain titles from Google Books. On top of that, the company already has the rights to print 1.4 million titles. That’s a great start. It’s not exactly an Amazon-killer, but I predict you’ll see these in every book store – and in non-traditional locations — think Starbucks, or even a 7-11. It will be a boon to local libraries that can afford it.

This has the potential to create a massive disruption in the book publishing industry. I expect there will be backlash from the traditional print houses. With the right deals, Google Books can become the publisher, and it has nearly limitless room for content. There’s no reason why you couldn’t write a book, upload it to Google Books and have it instantly available for sale everywhere that has one of these machines.

Back to that contest – Harvard wants a unique name for its book machine. Enter if you come up with a good name. My suggestion: “The Guten-Nuff.”

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