[blindkid] Bookshare partners with Sharing-Books

DrV icdx at earthlink.net
Sun May 31 00:41:11 UTC 2009


This came to me via another list-serve & may be of interest to those who have or work with young braille-readers.
Eric V
--------------------------------

Sharing-Books.com Partnership Will Serve Visually Impaired Young Readers
PRESS RELEASE
via
www.PRweb.com
Bookshare to Offer Children's Books from Sharing-Books.com Partnership
Will Serve Visually Impaired Young Readers
Bookshare.org is the leading on-line library for the visually impaired.
Sharing-Books.com is a leading on-line publisher of new children books.
The two companies announce that the children books published by
sharing-books.com will be added to the Bookshare library for the benefit
of visually impaired children.
Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) May 5, 2009 -- Bookshare and Shared Books Ltd of
Vancouver BC are pleased to announce a partnership that will expand the
availability of children books in the Bookshare library.
Shared Books, which operates the Sharing-Books.com website, has agreed
to allow children's books published on Sharing-Books.com to be added to
the Bookshare collection. This initiative will increase the number of
children's books accessible to readers with print disabilities and
provide an opportunity for authors published on Sharing-Books.com to
offer their works to a new group of valued readers.
Schools around the world have signed up their qualified students for
Bookshare and many parents have registered their children with
qualifying disabilities for individual Bookshare memberships. The number
of new Bookshare school and student members increased tenfold in 2008.
More than 47,000 people with print disabilities now subscribe to the
Bookshare library.
This partnership will allow Bookshare to continue to expand its
collection of books for young readers who remain a critically important
group within our membership. Sharing-Books.com is on the forefront of
providing these texts in a digital format.
"The children's books provided by Sharing-Books.com will be available to
Bookshare members worldwide," says Bookshare CEO Jim Fruchterman. "This
partnership will allow Bookshare to continue to expand its collection of
books for young readers who remain a critically important group within
our membership. Sharing-Books.com is on the forefront of providing these
texts in a digital format."
"Having some personal experience with technology that serves the
visually impaired, I was thrilled to see our authors being able to
contribute content to Bookshare's impressive library," said Pierre
Lapointe, CEO of Shared Books. Our team's enthusiasm for Bookshare is
unanimous. We want more people to read more books. Technology has an
important role to play in reaching all potential readers."
About Bookshare
Bookshare is operated by Benetech, a Palo Alto, CA-based non-profit
technology organization.
Bookshare offers people with print disabilities more than 47,000 books
and 150 daily periodicals in accessible formats including Braille, large
print and synthetic speech. People with print disabilities include
readers who are blind or have low vision, learning disabilities or a
mobility impairment that prevents them from reading a traditional
printed book. In 2007, Bookshare received a
$32 million five-year award from the U.S. Department of Education's
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to give all U.S. students
with qualifying print disabilities free access to the Bookshare library.
About Sharing-Books.com
Sharing-Books.com is an innovative business model combining private
enterprise and social goals.
Sharing-Books.com authors receive a third of the revenues of the company
as royalties. Another third of Sharing-Books.com revenues are given to
Room to Read, a charity that equips developing nations with literacy
resources. The company operates an ultra lean virtual business model
with the other third of its revenues. Sharing-Books.com disrupts the
traditional publishing cycle by giving new authors and new books an
immediate publishing venue. The Sharing-Books.com model identifies
promising books and characters for the paper publishing, gaming, movie,
and toy industries.
Contacts:
Ann Harrison
Benetech
415-637-5262
ann.h (at) benetech.org
Maggie Kerr-Southin
Sharing-Books.com
250-595-0136
Maggie (at) artemispr.com


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