[bksvol-discuss] Article: Book Review: "Finding eBooks On the Internet" by AnnaDresner

juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx · Tue, 15 Nov 2005 19:26:57 -0500 (EST)

The Fred's Head Companion
Thursday, November 10, 2005

Book Review: "Finding eBooks On the Internet" by Anna Dresner

By Michael McCarty

In the last decade the Internet has rapidly become one of the most important
ways of accessing information for people who are blind and visually
impaired. As the Internet has grown in size and popularity, so has the
availability of accessible electronic books in a number of different
formats.

Today, we know that there are thousands of eBooks that can be accessed. but
how do we go about finding specific titles? And once we find them, how do we
download them? And how do we read the different formats?

"Finding eBooks on the Internet" tells you how. "Finding eBooks on the
Internet" is a publication of the National Braille Press. This book shows
you the step-by-step process of how to obtain public domain books from
sources like Project Gutenberg and the eText Spider, how to acquire
commercially available accessible books from companies like Baen, and how to
go about getting books in accessible formats from sites like Web-Braille and
Bookshare.org.

What makes this a unique book is that the book is written by Anna Dresner,
who uses assistive technology herself. The book includes keyboard commands
for both JAWS and Window-Eyes. This publication is available in braille and
large print.

Finding eBooks on the Internet
by Anna Dresner
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Chapter One: Books in Specialized Formats

A. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped:
Web-Braille

1. Registering for Web-Braille
2. Finding Web-Braille Books by Title or Author
3. Downloading a Book from a Quick Search or Multiple Term Search Page
4. Searching for a Series
5. Searching for a Subject
6. Using Voyager to Conduct More Advanced Searches
7. Finding Out What's New
8. Braille Magazines
9. Braille Music
10. The Web-Braille Home Page

B. eBooks in Specialized Formats for Canadians: The CNIB Digital Library

1. Registering for the CNIB Digital Library
2. Logging Into and Out of the Digital Library
3. Changing Personal Preferences
4. Conducting a Basic Search
5. Accessing eBooks
6. Conducting an Advanced Search
7. Browsing the Catalog
8. Accessing Newspapers, Magazines, and Reference Resources
9. Additional Features

C. Scanned Books by the Thousands: Bookshare.org

1. Becoming a Bookshare.org Member or Volunteer
2. Logging In
3. Finding and Downloading Books
4. Submitting and Approving Books for Publication

D. Educational and Fiction Books for Children: The Texas State School for
the Blind and Visually Impaired

E. Books in Spanish and Other Languages: Tiflolibros

F. Downloadable Braille Books for Everyone: the International Electronic
Braille Library

Chapter Two: Public Domain Books That All May Read

A. The eBook Pioneer: Project Gutenberg

1. Searching
2. Changing Your Downloading Site
3. Multiple Ways to Search and Browse

B. Another Place to Search and Browse for eBooks: The On-Line Books Page

C. A Large Personal Collection: Jon Pierson's eBooks

Chapter Three: Commercial Sites Selling Accessible eBooks

A. Text Files and Tutorials: The B&R Samizdat Express

B. Buy Science Fiction and Fantasy Before it Comes Out in Print: Baen Books
C. Fantasy, Science Fiction and More by Well-Known Authors: Fictionwise.com

D. eBooks You Can Listen To: Audible.com

E. Additional Sources of eBooks and eBook information: The Blind Bookworm

Chapter Four: New Developments in eBook Access

Appendix A: File Types and eBook Formats: What They Are and How to Access
Them

ASC (ASCII)
BRF or BFM (Braille Format)
DXB (Duxbury Braille)
DOC (Microsoft Word file)
HTML or HTM (HyperText Markup Language)
LIT (Microsoft Reader)
MEG (MegaDots File)
PDB (Palm Document)
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Reading an Accessible PDF File
Reading Less Accessible PDF Files
PRC (Palm or Mobipocket Document)
RTF (Rich Text Format)
TXT (Text)
ZIP (Compressed Files)

Appendix B: Programs that Help You Get eBooks^DDLWB-View, Kurzweil 1000, and
OpenBook

WB-View
Kurzweil 1000
OpenBook

Appendix C: Downloading Word, RTF and Braille Documents As If They Were
Programs

Word and RTF Documents
Braille Files

Appendix D: The Internet Explorer Download Dialog Box

Appendix E: Selected Keyboard Commands for Internet Explorer with JAWS and
Window-Eyes

Opening a Web Page
Navigating a Web Page
Link Navigation
Forms
Frames
Tables

Appendix F: Websites Mentioned in This Book

Books in Specialized Formats
Public Domain Books
Commercial eBook Sites
Additional eBook Information
Book Players, Reading Devices, and Notetakers
Screen Readers
Miscellaneous Sites

National Braille Press
Toll Free: 888-965-8965
Email: orders@xxxxxxx
Web: http://www.nbp.org

Visit the American Printing House for the Blind's Fred's Head Database
Companion Blog, at

http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/

http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2005/11/finding-ebooks-on-internet.html

--
BlindNews mailing list

Archived at: http://GeoffAndWen.com/blind/

Address message to list by sending mail to: BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Access your subscription info at:
http://blindprogramming.com/mailman/listinfo/blindnews_blindprogramming.com

To unsubscribe via e-mail: send a message to
BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in either
the subject or body of the message

 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.

Other related posts: