In America, a not-for-profit organisation called the Public Library of Science is employing a similar business model.

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One piece of hardware, a mechanized private file library called a "memex, " has become a model for the MyLifeBits team.

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Growing up in Ohio, he began making model planes and by his early teens had amassed an extensive aviation library.

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The British announcement followed the publication of a report by Dame Janet Finch, a sociologist at the University of Manchester, which recommends encouraging a business model adopted by one of the pioneers of open-access publishing, the Public Library of Science.

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The business model differs from that of traditional video rental stores that typically let customers pick movies from an available physical library of titles.

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