Category: Uncategorized

This blog is contributed by Bookshare member and staff person, Liz Halperin. Hi everyone! I’m an avid reader and proofreader for Bookshare and work in the Collections Department. I’ve had the great fortune to read books that I might not have read otherwise.  This blog is about the books for adult readers I’ve recently read. These books took my breath away with the haunting power of their stories and quality of writing. Alert!  Bookshare members might find some of these reads disturbing because of their sheer intensity.  My suggestions are NOT light-hearted books. If you are looking for something creative,…

Earlier this year, at our member party at the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) conference (2013), we met lots of cool members!  One of these members, was 17 year old, Jessie Rogers, a budding teen author.  Jessie’s first book is Fairy Sight, about a magical orb and it’s now available in the Bookshare collection and on Amazon. Fairy Sight is about a magical orb that protects the kingdom of Adoraun. When the orb disappears, the prince believes his betrothed bride has taken it. He sets out on an adventure to regain the stolen magic and is thrust into a…

Once again, we had a blast hosting Bookshare’s fifth annual summer reading contest – an event we hope was not only fun for everyone, but also rewarding!  Congratulations to all who participated! This summer, student members grabbed the opportunity to catch up on all the fun summer reading they could not do during their busy school year.  Some of the popular summer reading titles included:  The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dave Pilkey, Star Wars: the Clone Wars by Karen Traviss, The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan, and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman.  If you haven’t read these…

Benetech/Bookshare proudly shares this guest blog by Glinda Hill.  Ms. Hill is an education program specialist in the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education.  Her post, dated July 17, 2013,  originates on the “Homeroom” ed.gov website and discusses the recently finalized WIPO treaty — an important international treaty to support individuals who are blind and print disabled around the world.    ************************************ On June 27, 2013, delegates representing over 160 member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), finalized an international treaty that, once ratified, will allow cross-border exchange of published works in specialized…

July 12, 2013, Berlin, Germany, and Palo Alto, California U.S.A.–Springer, the leading global scientific publisher, has signed an agreement to provide Bookshare, an international leader in providing copyrighted digital accessible books to people with print disabilities, with world rights to its titles. Springer is home to the world’s largest Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) eBook collection and published more than 7,500 in 2012. The first major STM publisher to commit to making their books accessible at this scale, Springer has taken a leading role to ensure that students have access to critical scientific resources. By contributing their digital files directly…

To all Bookshare Members and Friends! We wanted to share with you Jim’s closing statement about the final WIPO Treaty.  This statement can also be read on Jim’s Benetech Beneblog. ************************ To the Diplomatic Conference in Plenary: On June 27, 2013 on the Adoption of the Treaty of Marrakech   This is an excellent Treaty. The Benetech team is delighted by its adoption today. We have the technology, we have the content, and now we have the legal framework to make it possible for every person with a print disability on the planet to get access to the books they…