26 University Presses Now Partner with Bookshare
A lot has happened over the year with university press partnerships. With three new partnerships in the last few weeks, I realized it was time to post an update. These three new university presses signing agreements to contribute digital files with world rights to Bookshare bring the total number of university press partners to twenty-six. The new partners are:
- Edinburgh University Press. As the imprimatur of one of Britain’s oldest and most distinguished centers of learning, they publish books of the highest academic standards. Their main subject areas are American Studies, Classics & Ancient History, Film & Media Studies, History, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, and Language & Linguistics.
- Fordham University Press, founded in 1907 and based in Bronx, New York. Fordham publish 60 to 70 books a year and has a backlist of a thousand titles. It publishes primarily in the humanities and the social sciences, with an emphasis on the fields of anthropology, philosophy, theology, history, classics, communications, economics, sociology, business, political science, and law, as well as literature and the fine arts. Additionally, the Press publishes books focusing on the metropolitan New York region and books of interest to the general public. It publishes three journals including Dante Studies and Joyce Studies.
- The University of Nebraska Press, founded in 1941 and based in Lincoln, Nebraska, is the second-largest state university press in the United States behind the University of California Press and is among the ten largest university presses in the country. The press publishes approximately 100 titles annually and has more than 2,500 titles in print. It publishers books and journals with a focus on American history, the American West, and Native American studies. The press is also one of the leading translators of French literature in the U.S. and has an extensive translation program that focuses primarily on French, German, and Spanish writers. The Los Angeles Times named the Press one of only three publishing companies in America “to reliably, season after season, produce significant translations.” The Press is also the publisher of the scholarly editions of the works of Willa Cather, including classics My Antonia and O Pioneers! This year the Press published Empires, Nations, and Families, A History of the North American West, 1800-1860 by Anne F. Hyde which won this year’s Bancroft Prize and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist this Spring.
These three join a long list of other scholarly presses. Digital files of very scholarly, phenomenal titles pour into Bookshare from the presses below as the files are readied:
- Cambridge University Press
- Columbia University Press
- Cornell University Press
- Duke University Press
- Gallaudet University Press
- Harvard University Press
- Hong Kong University Press
- Indiana University Press
- MIT Press
- NYU Press
- Princeton University Press
- Stanford University Press
- University of British Columbia Press
- University of California Press
- University of Chicago Press
- University of Michigan Press
- University of Minnesota Press
- University of North Carolina Press
- University of Ottawa Press
- University of Wisconsin Press
- University Press of Colorado
- Wesleyan University Press
- Yale University Press
A guest post from Ben Johnston, Director of Marketing for Don Johnston, Incorporated. This resource sounds great! Thanks for sharing it with us.
With over 140,000 accessible books, Bookshare is a blessing for students with disabilities. This resource would have been unimaginable just ten years ago when days were spent scanning books. But with more accessible books than ever, how do you choose a reading accommodation best suited to a student’s needs?
Two assistive technology leaders, Denise DeCoste, Ed.D., and Linda Bastiani Wilson, MA, Ed., from Montgomery County Schools in Maryland found the whole process of choosing reading accommodations to be inconsistent and subjective. With other district staff, they evaluated hundreds of students across their district for reading accommodations annually. They wanted a more systematic approach, so they created a process to improve the reliability and consistency of their recommendations. After hearing from other districts with the same challenges, Denise and Linda graciously wrote their framework up as “PAR” (Protocol for Accommodations in Reading) and handed it over to us to publish. We brought it together with leveled reading passages and opened it up as a free download.
PAR helps anyone on an IEP team determine if a student can benefit from a reading accommodation, and if so, it will help guide them to choose the most suitable type of accommodation (text reader, human reader or audiobook).
The PAR manual includes several tools:
- Protocol—guides data collection that compares independent reading, reading with a human reader and reading with a text reader
- Reading Samples—provides eight reading passages (four narrative, four expository) and vocabulary questions for each grade level, grades 3rd through 10th
- Quizzes—Includes comprehension quizzes for each reading passage—factual, topic-related, inferential and vocabulary
- Multiple Formats—reading passages are available in Word, PDF and ePUB so that you can use them in your preferred text reader (like Read:OutLoud).
You can download PAR from our website where you can also watch Denise explain PAR through an on-demand webinar. PAR has only been available for a month now and is already nearing 2,000 downloads. I hope you’ll check this new resource out!
Sallie Spencer
The 2012 Mentor Teacher selected to win the top prize, an iPad, is Sallie Spencer! Sallie is a middle school Special Education Teacher at Olivet Middle School, in Olivet, Michigan. As a Mentor Teacher, she met with district special education staff both in groups and individually, and walked them step-by-step through the process of finding and downloading Bookshare books for their students. She also worked one-to-one with general education staff with Bookshare-qualified students in their classes. Sally believes that Bookshare “is not used enough so I truly want to put the word out!” Sallie adds that she regularly promotes Read2Go for the iPad or iPod Touch, because it’s so easy, and she’s glad for the recent arrival of Go Read for the Android platform.
During the year, Sallie described how Bookshare changed the life of several of her students. For example, an 8th grade student with dyslexia could listen and retain information, but he couldn’t remember short vowel sounds. This hindered his reading and as a result his self-esteem was low. However, when he started reading with Bookshare, he read four books right away and began to feel like his peers! She gave him an individual membership so he could read at home as well. In addition to this student, others were coming into her Reading Resource Room and asking to read. These students felt as if they could read books that their peers were reading and that made them feel so good. They gained vocabulary because they could see the words and hear them at the same time.
Besides full-time teaching, Sallie is an adjunct professor at Olivet College where she teaches a variety of classes, including Technology in Education (both undergrad and Master’s level), The Responsive Classroom, Collaboration in the Classroom, and others. She also presents Professional Development Sessions in the summer incorporating technology in the classroom. The primary focus of her training is to include as much technology for the classroom as possible, to help kids advance in English/Language Arts, both in an inclusive classroom and a resource room.
Over 370 Mentor Teachers are actively working in their schools and districts; a number of them submitted forms, reporting about their work as Mentors. The complete list of winners is posted on the Bookshare website.
Individual Memberships for Change and Transition
Mary Carney, a 7th grade English teacher at Lowville Academy Central Middle School, NY, wanted to change the way some of her students thought about reading, and the way they read. She knew that if she could find a way to help her students feel more confident and independent as readers, they would be more successful in her English class.
Carney signed her qualified students up for Bookshare organizational memberships. “I believed the federally funded library (free to U.S. students who qualify) could support my efforts to turn around students who were falling behind their grade level reading.”
One of the first students to get digital books and reading technologies was Shane McNight. He has a reading disability and wasn’t keeping up with assignments. Watch Shane in 7th grade demonstrate Bookshare on You-Tube.
Now in 10th grade, his high school resource teacher, Donna Yancey, said, “Shane’s reading skills have greatly improved, along with his desire to read books for pleasure. Through Bookshare and the reading technology accommodations, he proved to himself that he was capable of handling high school assignments.”
Today, students in Mrs. Carney’s middle school English class, who once hated to read, are motivated to download digital books. She has signed up more students for individual memberships so they can search for and download digital books on their own (at school and home). “I felt that if I could teach my students to download books on their own, they would use the library more effectively. What better way to empower students to take charge of their own progress!”
Now students search the library for cookbooks, hobbies, and the latest news and periodicals. They are reading more books and becoming better readers. Other teachers tell Mrs. Carney that her students have improved their academic skills overall; they are more confident in high school and better equipped to handle the reading projects assigned to them. Jerry, a student who was not enthusiastic to read, but loved to work on cars, found engine repair manuals in Bookshare. “We noticed a change in his attitude,” said Mrs. Carney. “His mom couldn’t believe the transformation. Jerry’s digital reading experience demonstrates what it’s like to turn the light on for students with disabilities. He may never have read another book or recognized his aptitude, but now he’s got a purpose. This experience led him to a vocational interest in high school and he is doing well.”
Mr. Bingle, Mrs. Carney, Mr. Bach
Mrs. Carney’s work with digital reading led other educators at Lowville to get involved. Steve Bingle, Instructional Technology Specialist and Ted Bach, Teacher for Academic Intervention Services also work with students to teach them to use reading technologies such as Kurzweil, Read:OutLoud and portable MP3 players and iPods.
Kathy Stratton with her son, Brian
We recently learned about the work of the New Jersey Reading Disabilities Task Force from Kathy Stratton, the mother of a Bookshare member. Appointed by the governor, this 11-member task force is researching the services available to students who struggle with reading to find out if the state is meeting the needs of its students with reading disabilities.
On April 30, the Task Force held a public hearing to gather testimony; over 130 attended and 60 spoke.
In Kathy’s words, “The theme was clear and consistent – schools are not meeting the needs of students who struggle with reading. Parent after parent spoke with passion about the time, and emotional, educational, and financial toll these struggles have taken on their families. The educators who spoke acknowledged that they and their colleagues are often poorly trained to meet the needs of dyslexic students.”
She urged the commission to consider that “in addition to teaching students to learn to read, it is equally important to provide struggling readers with opportunities to read to learn.”
She emphasized the value of accessible instructional material to enable struggling readers to keep up with their classmates and talked about the Bookshare celebration in DC, at which Senator Harkin (IA-D) said, “100% of Iowa’s school districts have Bookshare memberships.”
Kathy urged the task force to provide information about the importance of accessible books in their report to the Governor and noted that 25% of qualified students in NJ are members in comparison to 100% of districts in IA. In conclusion, she said, “I hope that someday soon I can report to Senator Harkin that 100% of schools in NJ have an organizational membership to Bookshare too.”
Her son, the Bookshare member, intends to contribute written testimony to the Task Force.
The testimony from the hearing will be considered by the task force as it compiles information for a report to the governor of New Jersey in July.
The Bookshare team applauds the Task Force for its efforts, as well as Kathy for her dedication, and looks forward to a positive outcome for all students with print disabilities in New Jersey!
Bookshare Helped Student Transition to College
Zach
Zach Bryant pulled straight A’s in his Maryland high school. He liked to read all kinds of books then, but that wasn’t always the case for Zach. He has Cerebral Palsy (CP) which prohibits him from speaking and walking. To communicate and write his thoughts down, he uses an augmentative communication device (AAC).
Simple tasks, like turning a printed page or finding the last chapter he read was frustrating for him. According to his mom, this experience happens to many children with CP. “They get frustrated and don’t want to read, but access to digital books and reading technologies changed all that for Zach, my son who is very intelligent.”
Now, with his individual membership to Bookshare, an online library introduced to him in high school by his Assistive Technology teacher, Zach applies himself and put his eagerness to learn into action. He attends Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He still uses his Kurzweil 3000 technology and Bookshare to find textbooks and he still loves to read political and non-fiction books for reading pleasure.
When we caught up with this busy young college student, he said, “Without Bookshare my academic life would have been much harder for me and my caregivers. It’s amazing that I can find most books I want and even postsecondary textbooks. No one has to do all that scanning for me and I don’t have to wait for my books. I can search for them and find them myself.”
The online library of accessible books and periodicals is free for U.S. students who are blind, have low vision, a physical disability, like CP, or a reading disability, like severe dyslexia, that prevents them from reading a standard book in print. The library is funded through awards from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Today, there are over 150,000 books including many textbooks on all kinds of subjects at many different levels.
According to Mrs.Bryant, “Zach is still very independent. Without Bookshare, he may not have stayed on grade level work to enable him to progress to college. These tools helped him to make the transition.” She credits her son’s love of knowledge and the ability to access digital books and reading technologies that enable him to reach for higher goals. “He’s our brainiac!”
Bookshare Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary
A guest post from Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, the parent company for Bookshare
Bookshare, Benetech’s pioneering digital library for people with print disabilities, celebrated its 10th birthday last night with a terrific party that was attended by many of our long-time friends and supporters. The event was hosted by Google on its campus in Mountain View, California, which is home to some of the most cutting edge technologists in the world.
Betsy Beaumon, Benetech VP and General Manager of Bookshare
During the event, our Bookshare staff offered demos of our Bookshare library and our Go Read accessible ebook reader for Android. They also demoed Read2Go, the accessible ebook application for the Apple OS and Route 66 Literacy, Benetech’s online literacy instructional program.
During the party we had a surprise video message from Stevie Wonder, a long-time Bookshare member who told us that he is using Read2Go to read accessible books from the Bookshare library. “I can feel it all over, it’s a hit!” said Stevie. Thanks Stevie! We think so too.
T.V. Raman of Google Research, a long-time Bookshare member and advisor, was on
T.V. Raman and Tilden
hand to help us celebrate last night. T.V. noted that Bookshare pioneered the delivery of low cost, accessible books for people with disabilities, and he looked forward to Bookshare’s 20th anniversary party when we would be demoing the next generation of this technology. Bookshare was one of the early recipients of a Google Grant of online advertising, which continues to this day. This summer, we will have three students working on Bookshare software for our users underwritten by Google’s Summer of Code program.
Bookshare has always attracted people who want to revolutionize how printed material is made available to people with disabilities who cannot read traditional books. Our vision is to provide equal opportunities for students with disabilities and help them overcome a major barrier to accessing to the most valuable prize in society: a great education.
Visionary funders who have supported this radical idea from the start attended our party last night including members of our board. Board members Gerry Davis, Jim Kleckner, Leighton Read, Brian Behlendorf, Christy Chin and Rob Wexler have provided wise counsel that has steered Bookshare’ success.
During our party, we also honored Social Profit Network’s Robert Levenson, the Skoll Foundation and the Omidyar Foundation which provided vital philanthropic funding to expand Bookshare over the last decade. In addition, we acknowledged the critical support of Bernie Newcomb who helped fund our International Bookshare service. Bernie was represented last night by Marie Young of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. During the party, we were delighted to receive a commendation from
Jim Fruchterman and Marcia Adler
Marcia Adler who attended the party on behalf of Liz Kniss, who represents District 5 on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Liz has been a long-time Bookshare supporter, and we were honored by the acknowledgement.
Bookshare Exceeds All Expectations
The idea for Bookshare came to me when my then-teenaged-son Jimmy, who also attended last night’s party, brought home Napster. Jimmy had discovered Napster at the home my neighbor, Eileen Richardson, who was then the acting CEO of Napster. Napster made me think of how peer-to-peer information sharing could help people with disabilities. I figured that if one Bookshare user thought a book was worth scanning, then that book was worth sharing with people around the U.S. who also had print disabilities.
When Bookshare was first created, most people with print disabilities read printed
Kristina Pappas and Rob Turner from Bookshare
material via books on tape delivered through the mail, which was expensive and slow. Our breakthrough with Bookshare was to put our users in charge of the collection. Instead of us deciding what people with disabilities should read, we let our readers decide which books should be scanned and shared under an exception in the U.S. copyright law. Our lower cost model made it practical to invert the power structure. As a result, we quickly became the largest online library for people with print disabilities.
Bookshare has grown tremendously from the 3,000 students that we were serving in 2007. A little over 4 years ago, we won a competitive contract award from the US Department of Education which took a bold risk on Bookshare. With this support, we began reaching out to students, teachers and schools throughout the U.S., and that risk paid off. By this September, we will be serving over 200,000 students with print disabilities in the US, twice the number that we promised the Department of Education we would reach by this date. By September, we’ll also have added more than 100k educational titles and achieved more than 3 million total downloads, delivering books for less than one tenth of the cost of traditional approaches.
Each month, we add more than 2,000 new books to the Bookshare collection and more than three quarters of those books come from socially responsible publishers who want to make their work available to all readers. The first publisher to donate books to Bookshare, years ahead of their peers, was O’Reilly Media. Bookshare also works with large trade publishers such as HarperCollins, Random House, Scholastic, international publishers like the IMF, World Bank and Brookings, twenty-two university presses, and more than one hundred and fifty other publishers. These publishers eliminate the laborious steps of scanning and proofreading digital text by giving us permission to share the text with readers with disabilities. They send Bookshare the same digital book files that they provide to Amazon, Apple or Barnes and Noble.
It was great to be able to celebrate with the Bookshare team, and the users who created this tremendous library, with the help of Google, our many friends in the area, and Stevie Wonder!
