 
The BookMobile program, which was started by Brewster Kahle and Dave Walburn in San Francisco, has inspired a similar program in India, where two vans, equipped with computers and satellite dishes that link them to the Internet, are providing on-demand books at an affordable price to people around the country. Visitors to the vans can choose from the hundreds of books in English and Hindi that are available from various web sites. Once a book is chosen, for a nominal fee, it is downloaded from the Internet, printed, bound, and trimmed.
The vans were put into service in April under the Mobile Digital Library program sponsored by the Department of Information Technology and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The idea started after Professor Kahle visited the ministry, and was nurtured by Prof. N. Balakrishnan. The vans are operated by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC). CDAC has been operating two Book Vans since April 2003, as a pilot project and are planning to install 50 more vans across the country. "Response to the program has been fabulous," R. K. Verma, Executive Director at the CDAC, said. "We have received enquiries about it from several parts of country."
 When it came time to outfit the vans with the proper equipment, the Ministry turned to Mr. Kahle for advice. As a binding solution, Mr. Kahle recommended the Fastback® 15xs, which is the binder that is currently used in the American BookMobile program.
The Indian officials are very happy with the Fastback® 15xs. “It is an excellent combination of elegance in design and efficiency,” Mr. Verma said. “The output is very fast and reliable.”
For more information about the Indian Mobile Library program, go to: http://mobilelibrary.cdacnoida.com
For more information about the American Bookmobile, go to: http://www.archive.org/texts/bookmobile.php
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