[nfbmi-talk] Fw: [Missouri-l] Project puts 1M books onlineforblind, dyslexic

Fred Olver goodfolks at charter.net
Fri May 7 19:18:51 UTC 2010


If you look carefully at the post, you can find a resource to get hold of 
which can tell you where and how to get hold of the books.

Fred Olver

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ann Petrous" <annpetrous at gmail.com>
To: "'NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] Fw: [Missouri-l] Project puts 1M books 
onlineforblind, dyslexic


> Yay!!!! *does a happy dance* now I can further my dragonlance obsession!!
> Lol There are sooo many books I would like to read, but I can't because 
> they
> are too expensive or it takes a million years for the sources I use to put
> them up. I have no patience, especially if it's a series I'm really into,
> and want to read right away. I'm a huge fan of fantasy, and I can't wait 
> for
> this to come out. What is the website, and when will this be launched?? I
> don't think bookshare, and the NLS can put books up fast enough for me.
> There are over 150 dragonlance related books, and I plan on reading every
> one of them; including fantasy titles I've never heard of, and will love 
> to
> discover. Woot woot lol I want to be able to read books on the day of its
> release. If sighted people have this privillage, we should too.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Fred Olver
> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 2:02 PM
> To: NFB of Missouri Mailing List; nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org; Bill; Kenneth M
> Schimel
> Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Fw: [Missouri-l] Project puts 1M books online
> forblind, dyslexic
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Chip Hailey
> To: missouri-l at moblind.org
> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 4:06 AM
> Subject: [Missouri-l] Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic
>
>
> Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic
> Email this Story
> May 6, 11:14 AM (ET)
> By BROOKE DONALD
> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store
> shelves and
> new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of 
> titles
>
> accessible
> to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.
> A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive 
> in
> San Francisco
> is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan
> thousands
> of books into its digital database - more than doubling the titles 
> available
>
> to people
> who aren't able to read a hard copy.
> Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will 
> initially
> make
> 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from
> foundations,
> libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book
> drive will
> add even more titles to the collection.
> "We'll offer current novels, educational books, anything. If somebody then
> donates
> a book to the archive, we can digitize it and add it to the collection," 
> he
> said.
> The problems with many of the digitized books sold commercially is that
> they're expensive,
> they're often abridged, and they don't come in a format that is easily
> accessed by
> the visually impaired.
> The collections are also limited to the most popular titles published 
> within
>
> the
> past several years.
> The Internet Archive is scanning a variety of books in many languages so
> they can
> be read by the software and devices blind people use to convert written
> pages into
> speech. The organization has 20 scanning centers in five countries,
> including one
> in the Library of Congress.
> "Publishers mostly concentrate on their newest, profitable books. We are
> working
> to get all books online," Kahle said.
> Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, says 
> getting
>
> access
> to books has been a big challenge for blind people.
> "Now, for the first time, we're going to have access to an enormous
> quantity," he
> said.
> Maurer, who is blind, said that when he was in college, he hired people to
> read books
> to him because the Braille and audio libraries were so limited.
> "That has been the way most students have gotten through school," he said.
> "This
> kind of initiative by the Internet Archive will change that for many
> people."
> Only about 5 percent of published books are available in a digital form
> that's accessible
> to the visually impaired, Maurer said, and there are even fewer books
> produced in
> Braille.
> Ben Foss, a San Francisco man with dyslexia, says having so many more 
> books
> available
> is liberating. He compares it to a million more ramps being added 
> throughout
>
> a city
> for a person who uses a wheelchair.
> "For me, it's about access. They have provided flexibility and freedom to
> get books
> in a format that I use every day," said Foss, 36, who is the director of
> access technology
> in the digital health group at Intel Corp.
> The digitized books scanned by the Internet Archive will be available for
> free to
> visually impaired people through the organization's website. The
> organization does
> not run into copyright concerns because the law allows libraries to make
> books available
> to people with disabilities, Kahle said.
> Jessie Lorenz, an associate director at the Independent Living Resource
> Center San
> Francisco who has been blind since birth, said it has been hard to find
> controversial
> or edgy titles in a format she can use, and choices are often dictated by
> institutions
> or service groups who have selected certain books for scanning.
> "For individuals living with print-related disabilities, this is
> groundbreaking,"
> she said. "This project will enable people like me to choose what we 
> read."
> Lorenz, 31, has already decided what she wants: Howard Stern's 
> autobiography
>
> "Private
> Parts," Andrew Weil's "The Natural Mind," and, perhaps most importantly, 
> her
>
> grandmother's
> cookbook.
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----
>
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