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Book Formats for Everyone!

Options are good, and Bookshare offers more choices in the form of books, reading tools, and now book formats. Bookshare wants to help its members read how and what they want to read.

Over this past year, Bookshare added new download options to our existing book formats—DAISY Text and BRF (Braille Ready Format). Continue to use these formats with your existing assistive technologies; however, if you are looking for a different reading experience, you may want to try one of the new formats.

The new book formats, DAISY Audio and MP3, provide more options in terms of technology and the way books are read.

Do you want to enjoy Bookshare books using everyday technologies like an MP3 player? Do you want to listen to books on the go without the text?  Did you wish you could read Bookshare books on technologies you already own, like the NLS Player? Now you can!

Earlier this year, we added an MP3 download option. We wanted to provide a widely available format that could be used on any MP3 player, whether a portable device you could take anywhere or any computer with an MP3 player application. This audio-only format allows readers to listen to books with the pleasant built-in Kendra voice from Ivona and to navigate to any track as with a traditional music MP3 file. MP3 is a very useful option for students who want to read and study at home but don’t have a home computer. Students can download their books to their MP3 player at school.

This past summer, we introduced another audio format called DAISY Audio. This new format expanded the availability of Bookshare titles to devices that were compatible with the DAISY Audio format, but not Bookshare’s DAISY Text format. The NLS Player is an example of a compatible device. Like MP3, DAISY Audio also comes with the Kendra voice built in, and like DAISY Text, it offers multiple levels of navigation, which make it easier to read structured books.

Which book format should you use? Decide how you want to read and select from these options:

See and hear words read aloud

  • DAISY Text—See words on the screen and hear words being read aloud; navigate by page, chapter, section, and more

Listen to books with audio only

  • DAISY Audio—Listen to books in audio-only mode with the high-quality Kendra voice from Ivona; navigate by page, chapter, section, and more
  • DAISY Text—Listen with the text-to-speech voice installed on your reading tool; navigate by page, chapter, section, and more
  • MP3—Listen to books with the built-in high-quality Kendra voice from Ivona; navigate by forwarding through tracks

Read in braille

  • BRF (Braille Ready Format)—Read with a refreshable braille display; navigate using the search or find feature
  • DAISY Text—Read with a refreshable braille display; navigate by page, chapter, section, and more
  • Embossed Braille—Use Bookshare’s DAISY Text formats to generate embossed braille

Want to learn more? Visit our formats page on the Bookshare website!

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