social good for society Archives - Page 4 of 7

Published October 28, 2014

Bookshare’s Updated Website Is Live and Helps You Do More!

Bookshare’s updated website is live, so please tell everyone you know who uses the library! This year, our team has been working extra hard to make some great new improvements to our website while keeping many core features you know and love. What’s extra cool is that the updated website is now mobile-friendly, so members can enjoy an improved on-the-go reading experience on tablets and smartphones. And as always, our website continues to be fully accessible. Let’s check what’s under the hood with the updated site! What’s New? Clear, streamlined information—Find out if Bookshare is right for you, and read…

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Published October 23, 2014

Celebrating Canadian Library Month and the CELA-Bookshare Partnership!

In July 2014, Bookshare announced a partnership with the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) in Canada. This partnership significantly increases the availability of accessible books and services to support Canadian citizens with qualified print disabilities. CELA is a non-profit organization established by Canadian public libraries with support by CNIB. Its mission is to offer alternative format production and services delivery of accessible books so that CELA member libraries may enrich the reading experience to support children and adults with print disabilities such as vision loss, a physical disability, such as cerebral palsy or a severe reading disability, like dyslexia.…

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Published October 10, 2014

Eighteen Books Later: How Paternal Passion Fueled Rick Riordan’s Writing Career

Book Five of Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, The Blood of Olympus, was just released and is now available in Bookshare. By our count, this is Riordan’s eighteenth book about the mythical and exciting worlds of young Percy Jackson and his fellow adventurers. Riordan’s books are highly acclaimed worldwide, but what may not be well known is his motivation for writing the first Percy Jackson story nearly ten years ago. He was driven by a force many parents understand: to help his second-grade son, who had just been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, engage in learning. At the time,…

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Published October 9, 2014

Sharing Timely Resources and Student Successes for National Dyslexia Awareness Month

Bookshare serves many members who have a severe reading disability, like dyslexia, that makes it difficult to comprehend what they read in standard print. Persons with dyslexia cannot easily recognize words and letter sounds. They may be slow readers and poor spellers because signals to their brain mix up the ability to accurately decode print. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) reports that 1 in 10 people have symptoms of dyslexia, and half of all students who qualify for special education in U.S. schools are classified with a learning disability. Thankfully, there are many people who have benefited from digital accessible…

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Published September 25, 2014

Accessible Books for Texas Program Funded for Fifth Year and Offers Enhanced Spanish Language Support

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has just approved funding for Benetech’s Accessible Books for Texas (ABT) program for a fifth year, from September 2014 through August 2015. Benetech is the parent nonprofit of Bookshare. This funding supplements an existing award from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education, and allows Benetech to do even more via a state-level partnership with Texas. Through ABT, local outreach coordinators deliver customized, face-to-face AEM (accessible educational materials) and Bookshare training to Texas educators, parents, and students. Additionally, Bookshare applies dedicated resources to Texas membership and support questions and book requests.…

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Published September 16, 2014

Bookshare Mentor Teachers Go Extra Mile to Inspire Independent Readers

Dedication is the one word we use when referring to the more than 500 U.S. teachers and specialists who participate in the Bookshare Mentor Teacher program. Because of their commitment throughout the school year, hundreds, if not thousands, of new educators, parents, and students with qualified print disabilities are now members of Bookshare. They can effectively use the library and reading technologies for academic success. Are you an educator who wants to go the extra mile to ensure reading equality and independence? Do you want to empower more students to stay on task with reading assignments in school and become…

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Published August 29, 2014

Winners of the 2014 Summer of Sleuths Contest!

We promised members that Bookshare’s 6th annual Summer of Sleuths reading contest would be the best summer contest to date. And guess what? It was! Congratulations to everyone who participated! From June 16 to August 1, 2014, 285 individual members, from kindergarteners to adults, grabbed their magnifying glasses and got busy reading and solving fun mysteries from detective stories in the Bookshare library. Did you have fun? Share your favorite book with us on Facebook or Pinterest, or Tweet about your experience at #SummerOfSleuths. Drum Roll Please…Here Are Our 2014 Winners by Category! Congratulations to all of the following contestants. …

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Published August 26, 2014

Team-Up for Textbooks: Volunteer to Help Students with Print Disabilities

Post written by Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager for Benetech and published on August 19, 2014 on the Benetech blog. * * * By Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager posted in Bookshare on August 19, 2014 – See more at: http://benetech.org/author/brendah/#sthash.zKQVLSuF.dpuf By Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager posted in Bookshare on August 19, 2014 – See more at: http://benetech.org/2014/08/19/team-up-for-textbooks-volunteer-to-help-students-with-disabilities/#sthash.p2N1sT90.dpuf By Brenda Hendricksen, Volunteer Program Manager posted in Bookshare on August 19, 2014 – See more at: http://benetech.org/2014/08/19/team-up-for-textbooks-volunteer-to-help-students-with-disabilities/#sthash.p2N1sT90.dpuf Across the U.S., thousands of students with print disabilities will start their school year without the textbooks they need for class. These students…

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Published August 7, 2014

We’re Experiencing Exponential Growth at Bookshare!

We’ve reached two major milestones in our work to advance reading equality to underserved populations, and we’re shouting it out to the world! First, the collection now surpasses a quarter of a million titles, 286,033 to be exact as of today. We achieved this milestone thanks to the sheer dedication of volunteers, our staff, and partnerships with over 500 leading publishers, like Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Wiley, and many others who donate their digital files. Did you know that Bookshare also has well over 14,000 textbooks in the collection? Yes, that’s true! We also have vocational,…

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Published July 31, 2014

HathiTrust Victory Advances Accessibility

The recent Authors Guild v. HathiTrust case provides a victory that advances accessibility for people with print disabilities. This post originally appeared on Jim Fruchterman’s Beneblog. On Tuesday, June 10, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York made a major ruling that emphasizes the legality of fair use for book digitization. In Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, a unanimous three-judge panel concluded that digitizing books in order to enhance research and provide access to individuals with print disabilities is lawful on the grounds of fair use—that is, a limitation and exception to the exclusive rights granted by copyright law to…

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