[Dtb-talk] ABWA beyond Book Beyond Barriers clarification

[Greg Kearney]

As there seems to be some confusion about ABWA's Beyond Book Beyond Barriers service please let me explaine how it works.

Beyond Book Beyond Barriers collection is divided into two parts. 

The first part is a collection of works in the public domain. Anyone disabled or not is able to request production of these titles into DAISY digital talking book format and download them from the Beyond Book Beyond Barriers website.  The DAISY versions will be either done by human narration or by synthetic voiced narration and is formatted in such a way as to play on a wide range of playback devices.

The second part of the collection is made up of works still protected by copyright in Australia. Only ABWA (blind and vision impaired) or SPELD Foundation (dyslexics) clients may directly access these works by means of download with a user name and password. AWBA also works with the other agencies in Australia serving the blind and print disabled to provides works from our collections to their users as well. Disabled persons outside of Australia and New Zealand requesting copyright controlded works from our collection at this time need to go through their local agency, school, library, etc. who can request materials on their behalf and certify that they meet local legal eligibility requirements.

Let me give you an example to show how this system works. Say a non-disabled user wishes to have "Seven LIttle Australians" by Ethel Turner. Because this title is no longer protected by copyright the use could simply download the DAISY book from our servers. However if the same non-disabled user were to attempt to download "Cultural anthropology : a perspective on the human condition" which is protected by copyright they would not be able to do so as to download a copyright protected book from our system requires a username and password. A ABWA library patron, who we know to be disabled, would have a username and password so could get the book.

We plan to employ other similar controls in the future such as using NLS style cartridges and verifying the patron by tying them to the serial number of a particular cartridge issued to them. The system will detect who the cartridge belongs to and auto load the next set f book in their request list to it. In this way we do not require maintaining an inventory of books on a shelf and large amounts of media.

I hope this clears up any confusion that might have existed as to how our service will work.

Greg Kearney, Manager - Accessible Media
Association for the Blind of Western Australia
61 Kitchener Ave
Victoria Park, WA 6100
AUSTRALIA
+61 08 9311 8246