February 2013 - Bookshare Blog

Published February 26, 2013

Plan Your CSUN Schedule

Are you going to CSUN? Look for our booth, #712, in the conventional hall and stop by for a demo and training on the new tools, Bookshare Web Reader and Bookshelf. Here’s quick look at all the Bookshare presentations, trainings, and events. Mark your calendars with items of interest. Event Day Time Location Presenter Latest Developments in Math Accessibility Fri 8:00 am Ford C, 3rd floor Anh Bui Born Accessible: Inclusive Publishing Thur 1:50 pm Ford C, 3rd floor Betsy Beaumon Reading Technology: What Works? Thur 9:20 am Ford C, 3rd floor Kristina Cohen and guest teacher from SDUSD Making…

Bookshare Members: Join Read Across America Day!

Saturday, March 2, is Read Across America Day, an annual event sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA) to motivate students to read. This year, it coincides with Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Schools are celebrating on Friday, March 1. Whether you celebrate on Friday or Saturday, let’s show the NEA that Bookshare students are readers! Add Dr. Seuss’s books to your students’ Bookshelves! It will be so easy to get all the titles to them! Watch this video to learn how to use Bookshelves in schools. Or look at the first-time user guide. Post a picture on Facebook of your students…

What is the Bookshare team reading?

What is the Bookshare team reading? For fun, we recently asked them, thinking our friends and followers might be interested and find a new idea or two. While selecting a new book, try adding them to your Bookshelf and opening one and reading it with the Bookshare Web Reader. They are easy to use! Read about the new tools. Fiction Picks: The Racketeer, by John Grisham. His latest title. Given the importance of their role, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered. Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver. A current…

A Bookshare Valentine’s Day Love Story

This true story was written by two Bookshare volunteers, Evan Reese and Lissi Deren. She was a proofreader in Ohio who saw a new Welsh name, Evan Reese, on the Bookshare volunteer list. His messages were articulate, optimistic, technically sound, sometimes funny, and always courteous. He was a scanner who saw happy messages from Lissi, noticed she loved animals, and better yet, she was a fan of The Lord of the Rings, proofreading a book, One Ring to Bind Them All. On May 20, 2006, he emailed her off list asking her to hurry because he wanted to read it.…

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Published February 7, 2013

Top Tips for the New Bookshare Web Reader and Bookshelf

Many members are already enjoying the benefits of the new Bookshelf and Bookshare Web Reader. As with anything new, we’ve received a few questions. First-time users, you may want to start with our first-time users guides: First-time Bookshare Web Reader First-time Bookshelf Top Tips for Bookshare Web Reader If you are sighted, use Google Chrome because it provides text-to-speech using your computer’s built-in voices and word-level highlighting. Note that when you select “Read Now” for the first time, you will be prompted to do a one-time installation of a Chrome extension. If you use a screen reader, use Internet Explorer,…

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Published February 4, 2013

First Reactions: Educators and Members Talk about the Bookshelf and Web Reader

You probably saw that Bookshare just released two new pieces of functionality, the Bookshelf and Web Reader. If you haven’t heard the news, our website has lots of information, including links to training, videos, and webinars. You can also read the announcement. Both tools are going to make it quicker and easier to get books to Bookshare students, saving time and effort. The Bookshelf will help individual members organize their books. Several educators and members have already tested and used the tools and have agreed to share their feedback. We encourage you to try the tools too! Here’s what they…

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