Category: book Nook
hi there, as Australia VIP now can get an international subscription with bookshare, can users of bookshare help me with these questions?
if you are bookshare subscriber (beside for text and refference books) how you rate bookshare in general?
how soon you can get new relist books on there?
what sort of book format bookshare's books in. either text or daisy?
I rate bookshare as my favorite service. They offten get deals now with publishers making new material appear there quite quickly. They also get all of the top 25 best sellors directly from the NY Times every month professionally scanned. The books are in either daisy format or BRF. In the daisy format you can still use an xml file if you are unable to read the other formats which saves me at work sometimes trust me.
I would say worth it. Just my 2 scents though.
I use Bookshare, and I would say I like it very much and it is definitely worth the $50 I spend each year for it. I like the large selection of books you can get (I think it's up to 100 per month and then you have to let them know if you want to download anymore than that), but I don't mind that because I don't download that much per month anyway. I've found some of the books I've needed for school on there as well as discovering books I really ended up to like, and they are all to keep, which is pretty cool. Although I haven't done this yet, I believe you can also sometimes get the yearly fee reduced if you are a volunteer for Bookshare, like they can take off some cents or dollars if you help in editing books and submitting new books.
I really can't say much about the newly released books, as I really just go for specific titles or subjects when I'm looking for books on there.
As for formatting, the books are available in DAISY or .brf format, and (if it is a book you could already get for free like thru Gutenberg) those ones are also available in .txt format. I've never gotten how the DAISY-format books worked, so I use the .brf ones on the BrailleSense and so that works pretty good for me.
I am a very active bookshare user, when i have the account active that is. got my whole collection of books from them now, and mostly scans are good.
they're worth it. the only thing is is if an auther puts out a book, they take a while in putting it up, like they have four books from an auther, but the person has since come out with three more books, and they're not up yet, nor are on the list of books they're currently scanning...
so it takes a long time to catch up, which annoies me cuz there's books i want to read that aren't there, like the anne bishop books, or the avalon web of magic series, or ravens of avalon... but yeah. other then that they're worth it a lot in my book.
Darkwing,
If you know who publishes the books, and / or if the author has a web site, you need to email them and they will do a very simple consent form with Bookshare and send fresh copies in electronic format. This way, nobody has to scan, and the books are up without errors. The publisher / author probably doesn't a. know about bookshare, and / or b. doesn't know there are readers like you on Bookshare who read their books.
Consider this: If you want the books to be up there, probably there are hundreds of others who do as well.
Food for thought.
they already have 4 books up, but those were scaned. but i might try that... now if i can just figure out what to say... i mean the books are now out in audio, i saw them on itunes, but 24 dollars per book, compaired to just 50 dollars per year, well, yeah...
Go on Bookshare's site there's a section where they will help you know how to communicate with the author if you want.
It's certainly worth it.
Be warned though, bookshare international doesn't have as many books as bookshare US due to rights issues and all that.
It's kind of annoying to search for a book when not logged in, see that it's there, log in and then realize that you can't get it because you're not in the US.
So it's basically a great service, but I really wish the publishers would allow bookshare international to get all the books as well.
Malthe.
I love bookshare as well. I at times get frusterated in that series might not all be there but in all it is the best I have found.
I've been a member and a volunteer for Bookshare for years and years. The site has grown and evolved greatly over the years. If you had asked me five years ago, I would've have given a different opinion. For example, I was always annoyed with the quality fo scans. Thankfully, they've upped their requirements for scans. And many of the volunteers, like myself, are dedicated to putting in nothing less than excellent-type scans.
Since I'm a US user, I'm not sure about Bookshare International. But if you're an avid reader and aren't wanting to spend tons of money for a book you're not sure you'll like, but sounds good, than go for it. I can't tell you how many times I got a book off Bookshare and read a few pages and realized it was not what I'd thought, or it was just a bad book. I just put it aside. No money lost.
Good luck!
I love Bookshare too. Not sure about the whole international thing, but I wish you luck with that! Have fun reading!
Macy
I didn't know you could contact authors/publishers through the site; I'm getting on that now! Despite not being able to find a few books/authors I've looked for, I find bookshare a very worthwhile service.
I agree with post eleven from Bookbug. I also am a bookshare volunteer and user and find it to be extremely useful.
Okay, I just signed up and got approved and am going to pay my membership plus the $25 fee they said new U.S. members have to pay once only.
Can someone explain how this daisy format thing works?
I don't have the money to get a booksense, knfb reader or VR stream or any of those portable players that say they'll play daisy files.
Can I play them on my regular computer?
Will they read aloud or is it like using my arrow keys and reading a document?
A brf file is for braille and I don't have a braille display hooked up to my computer.
I signed up because I seen books on there that I can't get through NLS and when I submitted to NLS 3 books I'd like to see in the new digital formats they're doing, they told me to go to bookshare. I was hoping for those books so they could be portable on the player to go with me, but it doesn't sound like these bookshare daisy files are.
Someone help, please!
How do I work this thing?
daisy format is just like reading a document. you have to unzip the file once you've downloaded it, and you'll see the book along with other things in said folder.
also, the books are password protected, but the password is the same as it is for your login info for the site.
hope that helps.
Thanks, I'll give it a try. I'm working on saving money to get some sort of portable player thing that will read daisy files. When I do, will the players read these aloud like an audio book?
I use Brf format on bookshare. I love bookshare, it's just slow on the BrailleNote.