Category: Geeks r Us
I was wonder if anyone on here used bookshare and how they likes it. What the sadvantages and dis advantages are
Hello,
I use it often and do greatly enjoy it.
Advantages: often has textbooks I need for school, is ever-growing, and has many novels and books I've not been able to find from Libraries for the blind, RFB&D ETC.
Disadvantages: costly at first--$75 I think with first activation. DOn't remember what hte renewal fee is.
I find it is worth the money though.
Shanda
ok, how does book share work. Are the files in mp3 format?
Jen
No, Bookshare is a collection of books users have scanned and then uploaded to the site. Bookshare makes each title available to its members in both BRF (braille ready files that can be read on a refreshable braille display) or Daisy. The Daisy files are simply text, no audio. Bookshare allows its members access to a free Daisy reader that will only read Bookshare books. I think the renewal fee is fifty dollars a year. This does give you unlimited use of the site though. I look at it as less then five bucks a months for all the books I want. I usually download the brf files and read them on my BrailleNote. I have also used the Daisy player on my pc, it is ok. As DixieGirl stated, you can often find books here you can't find in other places. When Bill Clinton's book came out, Bookshare volunteers had it scanned and uploaded with a day of release to the public. As far as disadvantages, since these are scanned books, you will sometimes find scanning errors. Bookshare tries to rate each title to let you know what quality to expect, but this isn't 100% accurate. Also, unfortunately, this service is currently only available to U.S. citizens. As I say though, I love the selection. Hope this is helpful.
is the daisy player a piece of software?
yes it is. i haven't used it myself though
Hey all,
I use bookshare and think it's wunderfull! Like someone sed the skans arnt always great, but look at what you get for your munny? You have axcess to all the books in the library and that keeps growing, i think it's like over 8000 alreddy and I may be rong. But to me that is worth it. If you don't like the skan quality just think, you can get the book and skan it your self.I find it much esyer to just read the books on my pc though. Going to all the other trubble of getting them on something else issent worth it to me. Kerswell works quite well for that.
O almost forgot, you can use not or word pad for books like this and it works wunderfully.
Here's more info for you. First, though, while it is correct that the collection is over 8000 books, it is actually much higher than that. I'm sure the collection is higher than 30000 actually, and the last count witch was done back in November put it at 29210, and at least 100 new books are submited on a weekly basis. Although you need to pay the orriginal $75 to start with, you can work toward getting money knocked off your next year's subscription by submited books you have scanned witch are not already on the site, or by volunteering to proof read others' submissions. As far as a daisy player being software, that's not always the case. Several companies make stand alone daisy players that do other things like play mp3 files and such. The daisy player that comes with your subscription, though, is in fact, software you install on your computer. I also think it's important to note that you do not need to have a daisy player or a program that supports brf files to access these books. You can also have an html file of the book created upon downloading the daisy book. One other thing: most of the newspapers/magazines available via NFB newsline are also available on bookshare for download. Oh, and halthough your questions can be answered here on this site, you can also subscribe to the bookshare mailing list where many people can provide you with answers to your questions. You don't have to be a subscriber to bookshare.org to join the mailing list, witch you can find from the bookshare website. I hope this additional information is helpful.
yeah it is, actually. Thank you.
<smile>
Jen
I use it to read 5 to 7 local and national periodicals daily. Considering what a stand alone subscription would cost me for just one periodical, it is without a doubt worth the $50 a year. Not to mention all the books I get to download.
I just used Bookshare to download Native Son. I still have very high hopes for the rest of the books, and I can't wait to continue using the service. With that said, almost every sentence or two in Native Son had an error. It was pretty constant; "The" was "TH," for example, and there were just a lot of scanning issues.
If you notice a book that has a lot of errors, report it to the staff or one of the vollunteers. I'm technically a volunteer, though I admit I haven't done a ton, but I do know that it is apreciated if a book is pretty garbled, if it gets reported. Often times if it comes to the attention of the scanning vollunteers, someone will rescann or proofread it, depending on what is more time efficient.
bookshare is a graitte site to get books fore the braillenote