Roger, Kelly, and others; Robin Seaman, publisher liaison, does a great job contacting authors and publishers, advocating for donations and partnerships. When we went to ALA in June, Nichole made personal appeals to dozens of publishers and authors, showing how she could read on her communication device via Bookshare. While it gave a real face and solution to the problem and procured over 50 physical donations we could scan to add and almost as many publisher contacts, it takes the experienced back and forth to answer the legal questions to the satisfaction of the publishers concerns. One misstep by a volunteer or inaccurate representation could lead to serious misunderstanding and a ripple of concerns in the independent publishing community (major publishers are already on board or understand the policies for the most part). Patience is truly a virtue in this case, IMHO. Valerie ----- Original Message ---- > From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> > To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Sent: Tue, January 31, 2012 12:17:18 PM > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: book request > > I thought that Bookshare prefers that we leave such contacting up to the > publisher liaison at Bookshare. > > On 1/31/2012 12:51 PM, Kelly Pierce wrote: > > Ann, > > > > Effective immediately, I have implemented a policy of ensuring that > > the author and/or publisher have been approached to donate their files > > and partner with Bookshare before scanning a book published in 1990 or > > later. I urge all others here to do the same. > > > > As I started the tedious effort of scanning and proofreading some > > books to which I really wanted access, I began to wonder if there were > > a better way. I checked and found the books available in EPub format, > > which Jim Fructerman says can easily be converted into DAISY by > > Bookshare staff and technical volunteers. As someone who has > > successfully advocated and created many accessible solutions for blind > > people during the past few decades, I have developed a knack for > > leveraging my skills, resources, time and energy to maximize my > > independence and often that of other blind people as well. Tens of > > thousands of people with disabilities have benefited from my > > high-quality solutions that created accessible banking, accessible > > voting, accessible public transit for the blind, Internet access, and > > technology access overall. It occurred to me that the only thing that > > stands between me and an existing EPub book is software that Bookshare > > controls that turns an inaccessible e-book into something blind people > > and those with disabilities can read easily. > > > > This is why I have adopted a policy of asking the publisher and/or > > author to donate their EPub books to Bookshare before I begin to scan > > or > > proofread a book. Further, publishers and authors need to hear from > > people with disabilities about the inaccessibility of currently > > available electronic texts. > > > > It can be surprising on how much can be obtained just by asking. I > > wonder why those who haven’t asked publishers and/or authors to donate > > their files to Bookshare feel comfortable asking volunteers to go > > through the tedious process of scanning and proofreading a book that > > is already in Epub and can be converted to DAISY in an automated and > > effortless process. The time available to this pool of volunteers is > > not limitless. Blind people and those with print disabilities will > > never achieve information equality without the cooperation and support > > of leading authors and the publishing community. Many are willing to > > help. They just don’t know how. Let’s inform and engage. > > > > Kelly To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.