[Athen] Great news, for Bookshare.

[Kestrell]

Another point to keep in mind is that one of Bookshare's strengths is its 
reader volunteers. Many of these readers are college students and college 
graduates who are far more knowledgeable about digital formats and 
formatting concerns than the DSS providers to whom they have to keep 
explaining about new tech. I say this as a former student who had to often 
explain to the DSS office about scanning technology like Kurzweil, 
converting text to Daisy or mp3, etc. Bookshare just released its first 
manual for scanning and formatting books, and I expect this will become 
increasingly sophisticated as time goes on.

Kestrell

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Beach" <rbeach at kckcc.edu>
To: "'Access Technologists in Higher Education Network'" 
<athen at athenpro.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 1:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Athen] Great news, for Bookshare.



> Another point to remember is that BookShare is already partnering with 

> colleges and universities to collect their scanned books.  So, they may 

> not necessarily have to hire staff who are knowledgeable in textbook 

> publishing in order to produce good quality books.

>

>

>

> Robert Lee Beach

> Assistive Technology Specialist

> Kansas City Kansas Community College

> 7250 State Avenue

> Kansas City, KS  66112

> Phone:  (913) 288-7671

> Fax: (913) 288-7678

> E-mail:  rbeach at kckcc.edu

>

>>>> "Michael O'Brien" <obriemic at hvcc.edu> 10/3/2007 11:33 AM >>>

> All good points, except Bookshare doesn't merely scan books, it cleans 

> them

> up.

>

> Mike

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Robert Martinengo

> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 12:02 PM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: [Athen] Great news, for Bookshare.

>

> The $32 million given to Bookshare certainly speaks well about their 

> ability

> to score big grants, but I remain skeptical about the substance of this

> award. I'm waiting to get a copy of the proposal from the DoE, but I'd 

> like

> to offer a few cautionary observations.

>

> Bookshare doesn't have much experience with textbooks. Their collection is

> primarily novels, mysteries, sci-fi, and romance. They are going to need

> serious upgrades to their infrastructure, and much better relations with

> educational publishers, both of which money can buy.

>

> They rely heavily on volunteers, as does RFB&D, but volunteers don't 

> really

> enjoy textbooks (As a former studio director for RFB&D, I should know).

> Bookshare will have to hire staff with educational publishing experience.

>

> Saying they "expect to add over 100,000 new educational titles in high

> quality DAISY and Braille formats over the next five years", is a dubious

> claim, for several reasons.

>

> First, its not the size of the collection that's important (RFB&D had

> 100,000+ titles before they went digital), it's speed and specificity

> - having the right book at the right time.

>

> Second, textbooks present challenges to Braille production that require

> skilled human transcribers, not just automatic translation, and the issue 

> of

> tactile graphics must be addressed.

>

> Third, DAISY/NIMAS textbooks also have plenty of challenges that have yet 

> to

> be dealt with, and students are going to need major amounts of training 

> and

> support to make effective use of them. Math, and other symbolic texts,

> remain a huge challenge.

>

> The point is, to succeed with this grant, Bookshare will have to transform

> itself from a cozy, volunteer community in to a professional provider of

> professional services. They will try to have it both ways, but it wont 

> work.

>

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