[bookport] Re: bookport Digest V4 #77

  • From: "David Allen" <wd8ldy@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:39:22 +1200

Hi Dan!
Well how amazing! If the little Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind can produce Daisy titles that offer complete navigation, I would have thought NLS would do at least as well. I'm not saying these books are being distributed to folks regularly, but they have proven that they can do a good job. I have been able to put some books on the book port that they've done, and it has been a most pleasant reading experience. The RNZFB hasn't determined yet whether it will distribute books via internet or by post, and they obviously can't produce the volume of material that NLS can because RNZFB receives no government funding for talking books, but it is interesting to know that the quality and usability of what we do get will and does exceed NLS efforts, based on your description. 

Cheers,
Dave
----- Original Message ----- From: <DanFlasar@xxxxxxx> 
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 4:21 AM
Subject: [bookport] Re: bookport Digest V4 #77



FYI:
    We Bookport folks are very spoiled, having the  ability to navigate by
page, sentence and phrase and so on. The new NLS digital talking books will be 
very uneven in navigation.  Books of poetry, for  example, are excellent -
you can go from poem to poem. Magazines seem to do pretty well too, giving us 
the ability to navigate by story and within story  (sometimes) headers or
subheadings.
For everything else, however, navigation is rudimentary. At best, for a 
novel or nonfiction work, you can get chapter  navigation, but no page
markups will be available. I understand that this decision is final, and that it is a lot of work to markup the considerable number of already recorded books, 
but perhaps a compromise?  New books, say  nonfiction, Pulitzer, Nobel,
Newberry prize winners, NY Times and Washington  Post bestsellers could be
paginated? Chapter level is fine for genre fiction but frankly, the new NLS books will be a step down for BookPort/Bookshare users. The test is not over yet and 
there of course are  bugs to be worked out in the NLS upcoming release.
   I understand that the Canadian NLS has a more  comprehensive digital
talking books program. Can anyone tell me abou tit and can they be ported to the 
BookPort - 1 or 2?
Thanks,
Dan
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