In an interesting development (they say they have been about since 2007, but this is the first I have heard of them), you can now collate your favourite articles from Wikipedia and have them printed as book. You can print your own reference book, or text book. Knowing how academia feel about Wikipedia I am not sure that will catch on…
It might be interesting though to see if libraries started printing on demand and including in their collections? Would you?
Pediapress [From their about page]
Customized printed books from user selected wiki content
PediaPress.com is an online service that lets you create customized books from wiki content. Simply add any articles you like into a Collection, and then click to order them as a paperback book. Covers, a table of contents, a detailed index and a list of figures are generated automatically, and the books are printed and shipped within 2–3 business days.
The PediaPress.com web-to-print service works on all MediaWikis that have installed the free Collection Extension.
Specialized reference books
As article size in a wiki is not limited by production or economic constraints, many articles in Wikipedia cover their subjects in much more detail than traditional encyclopedias. By combining related Wikipedia articles, you can create a specialized reference work on almost any topic in many languages.
Better, more affordable textbooks
A growing online movement aims to create better textbooks. Quite often the content for these textbooks is created collaboratively by using wikis (e.g. Wikibooks). Textbooks derived from this content promise to be affordable, up to date and accurate. PediaPress allows customizing the contents of the printed textbook to fit the precise demands of teachers and their students.
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