Re: Bringing out-of-print math books into print



Since most mathematics books are out of print, including some very
important books, every mathematician probably has the experience of
not being able to buy a book at a reasonable price. Worse, many
mathematicians are unable to obtain access to a book at all because
they don't have easy access to one of the large libraries.

The solution, however, lies with the authors. Until recently, all
publishers required that authors give them the copyright of work
before they would publish it. However, there is a tradition that
publishers will return the copyright to the author once the work is
out of print if requested. For example, I had no problem at all
getting back the copyright to a book of mine from Elsevier, and I even
managed (with some difficulty) to get permission from Elsevier to post
a scan a conference proceedings I had co-edited.

Once the author has the copyright, it is a simple matter to scan it
and post a pdf file on the web (see http://www.jmilne.org/math/Books/scan.html).
Alternatively, the author can probably request Google to make their
scan available.

Of course, a bound copy is to be preferred, but print-on-demand
publishers (e.g., Lulu) will print a copy of book if you send them the
files. Better, the author can send them the files and make it
possible for everyone to order a copy.

J.S. Milne


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