Bookshares Making Books Accessible

After the furor over the Kindle 2 having text-to-voice conversion built in, you might have thought that the visually-impaired had no other access to print books and newspapers. The Kindle 2 did simplify the access and widen the offering for people unable to read traditional books, but there are other sources of reading materials. One is Bookshare, a project supported by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Program. Bookshare provides assistive technology and texts to physically, visually, and learning disabled people. Clients get devices that turn text files into either voice or braille.

A good explanation of how Bookshares works is found at http://www.bookshare.org/about/howBookshareWorks.

The cooperation of publishers makes some titles readily available for the project, while an exception to copyright law makes all titles legal for inclusion. Volunteers buy books, scan them, proof them, and assist distribution. There are many opportunities to help explained on the Bookshares website.

What Does a Librarian Do after Reading a Sunday Newspaper?

After reading the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I often find myself going to the Internet to look something up. This is not because the Tribune is now putting additional information online in an attempt to streamline and economize. I rarely do as they suggest. I go to start applying the daily news to my own life and profession. Here are my actions after reading the January 25, 2009 issue.

1. I went to the iTunes Store to see if I could get a podcast of President Obama's weekly radio broadcast from Saturday, January 24. I could. It was from ABC News and looked to be an hour and 24 minutes. I thought that seemed awfully long. I found that it was actually only 5 minutes and ten seconds. The President mentions support for school libraries in his message as well as high speed Internet for rural areas.

2. After reading about Andrew Bird, a classical violinist who has crossed over to rock, I went to YouTube to see if I could find some videos. I found 15. He plays his violin, guitar, sings, and even whistles. I like this live performance.

3. I went to SWAN, our consortium's shared catalog to see if any library owns books by Cass Sunstein, Obama's pick as regulation czar. Like Bird in YouTube, there were 15 hits.

4. I looked at SWAM again to see if my library has the books nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Prizes. I recognized many titles, but a few were new to me. Only one library in the system owns The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart by M. Glenn Taylor. My library did well in having most of the nominated titles in fiction, biography, and nonfiction, but we missed on most of the autobiographies. I went to Baker & Taylor to ordered some books.

Perhaps, I am old fashioned reading the newspaper, but it is still part of my information quest. It alerts me to issues that I research further. It will be sad to see it go, which it may soon.

Andrew Keen: Provocateur and Nothing More: A LibrarianInBlack Report

The LibrarianInBlack attended a symposium at the University of California-Berkeley called "Is the Web a Threat to Our Culture?" The two speakers were Andrew Keen, author of Cult of the Amateur, and Paul Duguid, an adjunct professor at the UCB School of Information. Sarah quickly produced a lengthy and thought-provoking account of the evening, including questions from the audience and her own thoughts. Librarians interested in the impact of technology on their work will find the account helpful. I recommend her report.