The Scanners Guild Blog

I’m excited to post a list of our Project Gemstone winners today. These people have worked energetically to validate scanned books so Bookshare readers can enjoy them this summer. Way to go, volunteers. And the winners are:

• Ann
• Darrell
• Deborah
• Grace
• Judy
• Tracy

Thank you each for your service to Bookshare. Each winner will receive a $20 gift certificate from Amazon. Thanks to Cindy Warford for sponsoring 3 of the prizes. What a great group of people you all are!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to announce and celebrate with the winners of our Project Treasure Chest contest. We had so many wonderful submitters, and I was cheering for each one of them. Names were put into a hat, shaken and stirred…

And the Project Treasure Chest winners are:

Congratulations to each of you. You will receive your Amazon gift certificate today.

Thanks to each of you who participated in the contest. You dedicated your talent, time, and effort to put high-quality scans of books into the Bookshare collection. I’m proud of each of you.

I’d like to invite you to a special and exciting online round table taking place this evening, May 14. Your thoughts, ideas, and questions will make it better, so I hope you’ll make time to join us. Comments from people of varying backgrounds, abilities, and levels of computer knowledge will make this panel unique and helpful for everyone. I know that both sighted and blind people will learn about each other in a way that strengthens friendships and makes life better for both kinds of people. Here is the invitation from our host, Paul Edwards.

At the end of Tuesday Topics last week when we were recording, those of us present found ourselves exploring the way blind people communicate on the internet, using email programs and blogging. It was suggested that you can actually recognize people who are blind by the way they communicate. This is because we tend not to make much use of the language of visual emotion-creation that has become so much a part of internet talking. We don’t use smiley faces or frownie faces or all the more than five thousand defined visuals that are out there. It was also suggested that many blind people portray themselves and blind people in ways we may not intend.

Sometimes we appear angry and to expect people not to use visual communications with us. Sometimes we appear to want to arouse the pity of those with whom we are communicating. Sometimes we take umbrage over nothing and assume that people are serious when their visual context makes it clear they are not.

How should we deal with this? Is it a big issue or not? Should we bother with the smiley faces and so on? If so, why? And, more important, if so, how?

Brian Collins and Monica Willyard will join us to discuss this fascinating question. With luck many of you will come to put in your two cents worth as well. We will start recording very soon after 9:00 PM Eastern on Tuesday May 13, 2008. Now here is more info about how to get to the Politics Room and what to do once you are in the room.

Using a web browser, go to
http://www.conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs510b693fb11f to enter the Politics Room.

There you must either download a small application if this is your first time there, or go on to enter the room. The next screen has a spot for you to input your real name and a password. Ignore the password. Just enter your name and press enter.

The new room looks a lot different from the old one. Please take some time and explore particularly the help menu and its accessibility submenu.

If you cannot join us tonight, please listen starting next Monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern to hear this program on the mainstream channel of ACBRADIO.

This is going to be fun. I’m looking forward to seeing you this evening.

People often ask me how I’m able to find the books I read and scan without going broke. The internet offers some great sites for book bargains, and I
thought I’d share some of them with you today. Of course, your public library should be the first place you check if you’re able to get there. Assuming they don’t have the book you want, here are seven of my favorite book bargain sites. I hope some of these will be new for you. I trust you already know about places like Amazon Marketplace, so I won’t cover that here.

I get most of my books from Paperback Swap. My friends and sisterchic Laura Ann Grymes got me started using this sight. It’s free to use, and the only costs involved are for postage. This site is great for people who already have a lot of books that they’re willing to trade. You post your books into the system, and other people request them. When you give a book to another member, you get a credit. You can use this credit to request a book from someone else. You only pay the postage on the books you mail out. When you request a book, the sender pays the postage. The average cost for mailing a paperback is $2.13 while the cost for mailing a hardcover book is usually $2.37. This site is especially good for finding mysteries, romances, children’s books, self-help, religious books, and homeschooling resources. Check out my bookshelf on Paperback Swap.

Half.com has a wide selection of used books, textbooks, movies, and music. I buy a lot of my computer books, business titles, mystery series, and cookbooks there. I’ve been happy with their selection and the quality of the books I’ve bought. The average price for a paperback is around $4 while the average hardcover book seemes to cost around $10. Shipping is usually around $3 per order, and that still costs less than buying the books as new.

My friend Louise Gourdoux got me hooked on a wonderfully powerful search engine for new and used books called AddALL. This gem will let you search several dozen bookstores and will sort the results by price. It’s great for finding the best deal on a book, and it makes finding out of print books much easier. You can narrow your search to certain sites, can search the world or just your country, and can search for certain bindings if you want. The search takes around 30 seconds, and it’s worth the wait. I found an out of print cookbook I’ve wanted for years right away. Thanks to Louise, buying books and getting the best price has become a lot easier.

Though its name is slightly misleading, Booksfree is a true bargain. I heard about this site from my friend Robert Tweedy. It’s a book and audiobook rental site that works sort of like NetFlicks. You rent the books, get them in the mail, read them, and mail them back, all for one low price. If you scan books for Bookshare, this is especially nice because it can take the place of your public library if you can’t get to it by yourself. They have various plans depending on how many books you want to get at one time.

BookCrossing is an unique site where people release their used books for others to “catch” or find. My friend Jamie Yates invited me to this site, and I’m glad she did. In general, this site works best for people with some sight because you need to be able to put stickers in books and copy down numbers from stickers on books you receive. One aspect that I’m able to use independently is the box exchanges where a group of people exchange a box of books. The first person mails out a box of several books. When the box arrives at your door, you take out a book you like and put one of your books in. Then you mail it to the next person. At the end, the person who originally sent out a box of books gets the box back with new books to enjoy. The box exchanges are usually done around a theme like mysteries or cookbooks. It can be a lot of fun.

My friend Mayrie ReNae got me hooked on buying book lots on Ebay. What’s a book lot? Good question. Basically, it means that a person will sell a box of books from a genre, and you buy that whole box. I love to buy boxes of mysteries. Sometimes people will sell an entire series as a lot, and you can get them all at a discounted price. You also pay less postage than if you buy the books individually on another site. Of course, the down side is that there may be a few books in that box that you don’t really want or may have already read. When that happens to me, I just post them on my Paperback Swap bookshelf. The savings from buying the box cancels out having a couple of books I don’t want, and those books earn me credit on Paperback Swap to get books I really do want. So it’s a win/win situation for me over all.

My last book bargain site is for those of us who like books that are hard to find. My friend Shelley Rhodes told me about this one. Alibris carries older books, including books from the 60s, 70s, and 80s that many stores no longer carry. They’re a great resource for out of print books of all kinds. They also sell used textbooks for those of you who are in college. They have friendly customer service, and the site is easy to use.

Do you have some favorite book bargain sites that should be added to this list? Are you about to try one of these sites for the first time? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Your ideas are what makes this blog better.

Happy reading.

Are any of you using a service called Twitter? I’ve been using it for a month or so and can see the possibilities for using it in conjunction
with the Bookshare email list for getting things done and supporting the community. It can lighten the load for the email list, making list membership more workable for those who work
full-time. The email list would still be important for answering questions about scanning, validating books, and such. Twitter could help us keep in touch with other volunteers and would let us talk about the books we’re working on, the websites that help us find those books, and the links we use to get things done. We can also share the titles of books we like and ones we’re ordering to scan. For now, I usually hold off on sharing these things since the email lists have such high traffic. So if the lists are so noisy, why am I suggesting another communication tool? Won’t this just add to the noise? It’s actually reducing the noise level for me, so let me explain.

Twitter is a tool that can complement the list in a powerful way. It’s portable, flexible, doesn’t require any special software, and can help us keep up with various projects in real-time. If you’re using Twitter, follow plumlipstick and I’ll follow you. If you’ve never heard of Twitter, I’ll explain. It works with screenreaders, Braille displays, and even on talking cell phones.

First, the address for Twitter is
http://www.twitter.com .

First I’ll explain what Twitter is and then show you how it can work for Bookshare members and volunteers. Here’s a summary from the Twitter website:

What is it? Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to
one simple question: What are you doing? Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own.
Possibilities are endless!

How do I use it? Tell us what you’re doing in 140 characters or less! Send your thoughts, observations, and goings-on in your day. Whether you’re “eating
an apple” or “looking foward to the weekend” or “Heading out of town” it’s twitter-worthy. Join us here. All of your personal information including your
phone number is, of course, confidential.

But… what is the point? As it turns out, your best friend is probably interested in knowing if you’re “loving the new Radiohead album.” And yes, your Mom may want to know if you’re “skipping breakfast in favor of a latte.” You might want to know if your significant other “feels like taking a roadtrip.” Find out what your friends are doing; keep each other abreast of your quotidian rituals.

Do I need anything special to use Twitter? In order to use Twitter you will need one of these things: an internet connection or a mobile phone.

How can I send updates to Twitter? Send updates to friends and family about what you’re doing in the way that works best for you. Update in myriad ways:

• • from your phone
• • from IM
• • from your logged-in home page
• • from m.twitter.com

• from any of the third party applications on Twitter Fan Wiki , made
by the talented folks who’ve utilized our API.

Now, how can Twitter help us? Here are just a few thoughts. I’m only scratching the surface here.

As of now, I don’t email the Bookshare mailing lists when I start scanning a book. I scan about 20 books a week, and I think some of the email list members who are already complaining about traffic would get annoyed if I sent 20 emails to this list with the title of each book I work on. With Twitter, I could post the title of each book as I start scanning because the
message is very short and is stored on a website, not in someone’s email in box. Right now, I’m scanning a book called The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. I can put a note on Twitter saying so. Say that Amber sees my note. She may reply to me and tell me that she wants to validate. So I post to Twitter when the
book is ready. Amber grabs it, and it’s validated quickly. Everyone else gets the read the book more quickly.

Or, say I’m vvalidating a book and am really enjoying it. I can post about that and about the fact that there’s another book in the series that goes first but that isn’t on Bookshare. Darrell Shandrow might see that and realize that he has that book on his shelf at home. Because Twitter uses one-line messages that can be accessed by a cell phone, he might even see this during a break at work or while he’s waiting around for a ride to pick him up from a meeting. He could post that he’s going to scan it, saving
me the cost of buying the book.

Now, this is where it really gets interesting. Public Twitter posts are saved on Google and Yahoo. So say that you are scanning a really popular or cool
book, and a disabled person is searching for an accessible version of that book. Remember, it’s not in Bookshare yet because you’re still scanning it.
You’ve posted about it on Twitter though. The blind searcher sees your Twitter post about the book and asks how she can get a copy. She’s just made the
connection with Bookshare. The person wants the book, so she signs up for Bookshare membership. Her membership becomes active around the time your scan is approved into the collection. Bookshare has gained a new member without spending a dime of its own money on marketing or publicity because we’re doing
it for them. By doing this, we have just leveraged the power of Bookshare’s volunteers and increased Bookshare’s ability to reach people in other places.

What do you all think? Is it worth a try? If you think so, visit
me on Twitter and see what it looks like. Then register for yourself. It’s free and safe. They have audio captcha so blind people can use the site. If you have a hearing impairment, let me know and I’ll help you sign up. The captcha is a one-time deal, and you can still use Twitter just like everyone else. You can use Twitter from your web browser or from your cell phone. No software is installed on your system. You can meet some new friends or get to know your current friends better. You can also be more sociable this way because you won’t
be adding to the volume of the mailing list if you want to talk about your kids, favorite music, your dog, or your garden. See you on Twitter.

Allison Hilliker, an intern for Bookshare.org has given us some great news. On one of the Bookshare mailing lists she wrote, “I wanted to write and let you know that Bookshare now officially has 37,000 books live on the Bookshare.org site! Thanks to all the volunteers for all your help in making Bookshare such a great, and ever-growing, success!”

With the help of several new volunteers, the addition of Bookshare staff members, and the publisher-donated books, we’re well on our way to hitting the 50,000 book mark by nextyear. Even more important is the steady improvement in the quality of the books being added to the collection as well as the broad scope of books being scanned.

Several volunteers are actively working on filling in books where we have partial series by various authors. I’m currently working with Susan and Larry Lumpkin on filling in the Dry Creek series, and I’m also scanning books in the Hannah Swinson mystery series by Joanne Fluke. After that, I’m planning to work on the Jane Jeffrey series of mysteries by Jill Churchill. Can you tell I like mysteries?

I’m excited by our progress and am planning a big online party for when we hit that 50,000 mark. You’ll hear my cheering all the way from Georgia.

I thought you might like to know that Amazon is having a sale on their books from the “Dummies” series. If you buy two books, you get one
for free. There are over a thousand books in the “Dummies” series on subjects ranging from buying a home, to sewing, to working with computers.

I think this sale could help us build up the nonfiction, how-to side of the Bookshare collection. Even if you are unable to scan books, you can still help to build
the Bookshare library’s collection. You could use this sale to purchase books and either send them to the Bookshare office or pair up with a person who likes to scan to get the books into the library.

Amazon will let you mail the books to the Bookshare office or to the submitter’s home if you like, so you don’t have to deal with packing up the books and getting them to the Post Office yourself. If you want to learn more about the sale, visit
http://tinyurl.com/2tyanm

Mail books to the Bookshare office using the following address.

Bookshare.org Collection Development
480 S. California Avenue,
Suite 201
Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609

Yesterday Rob Turner, a Bookshare customer support specialist, posted to the Bookshare Discuss list that

Our Special Collections page has been expanded to contain the following five categories:
• New York Times Best Sellers
• Newbery Award Winner List
• Teacher Recommended Reading
• AFB Braille Bug® Reading Club Favorites
• TIME Magazine’s ALL-TIME 100 Novels

The Expanded Collections page will be a handy resource for everyone who uses Bookshare. Most of these books have been scanned by Bookshare’s own Carrie Karnos, and they’re in excellent shape. Way to go Bookshare!

Bookshare members are keeping some secrets, and I think it’s about time that someone shared them with you. Users of Bookshare actually have seven powerful advantages that most people would love to have but can’t get, even from services like NLS or their local public library. Since Bookshare serves people with many kinds of print disabilities, you may think I’m nuts when I say that we’ve got some truly amazing perks, some of which our able-bodied friends can’t get at any price. Read on to discover these secrets for yourself.

1. Round the clock access. Bookshare members can get books at any time of the day or night. If you can’t sleep and find yourself wanting a Dick Francis mystery at 3 A.M. you can just go get it. No waiting for tapes to come in the mail. No waiting for someone to turn in a book so you can check it out. No waiting lists. No figuring out when the library is open and when you can get a ride to get your books.

2. Access to new books within weeks or even days of their release.Bookshare staff and volunteers make a point of providing the New York Times bestsellers very quickly, so you can discover the hottest books and read them while they’re still the talk of the town. Bookshare added the last Harry Potter book within 4 hours of it’s release, a major step forward from the days of waiting several months for popular books to be made accessible.

3. Bookshare is convenient. There are no tapes to mail, no taxi rides needed to go to the library, no clumsy file formats that will only play on certain digital audio players. You can download books from the comfort of your home and can read them with just about any device you might own, including using the speech engines and voices you like best. Bookshare gives you the freedom to read in audio or Braille, and you are in complete control of what and how you read.

4. Bookshare users get to choose what’s added to the collection. Every person’s preferences matter. Unlike NLS, where a committee of 9 people decides, or Audible where the publishers decide, Bookshare’s collection is built by its users. If you want to read a book, you can request it, and it will usually be scanned fairly quickly. If you can’t scan books yourself, you can even send a print book to the Bookshare office to be scanned and added to the Bookshare collection. Can you top that?

5. Bookshare is a great deal financially. This is one of the really big secrets about Bookshare that most people don’t notice. The membership fee is $50 per year with a one-time setup fee of $25 during sign up. Bookshare users can download 100 books each month, and that limit can be raised if you need access to more books. If an able-bodied person were to buy 100 books in a month, she would spend somewhere around $900 to $2,000. That’s just for one month’s worth of books. Multiply that figure times 12 to see what the cost would be for a whole year. Now, how does that $50 membership look to you? It’s not so over the top, is it?

Before you begin to think that the publisher isn’t getting a fair deal here, also consider that without Bookshare, the publisher wouldn’t sell any books to this group of people. We couldn’t read the books, so we wouldn’t buy them. Bookshare staff and volunteers often buy print copies of books to scan, so a sale is being made. On top of that, many of us find that we like the book we’ve read on Bookshare and end up buying copies of it for our friends and family for birthday or Christmas presents. So the publishers do get sales here, more sales than if Bookshare didn’t exist.

6. Bookshare champions free speech. The policy at Bookshare is that if people want to read a book, it will be included in the Bookshare collection. From Bibles and religious literature to material about alternative lifestyles, Bookshare makes no effort to prevent readers from exploring the world of books. There are no selection committees to determine what we should or should not read. In true American spirit, there is freedom and protection for all points of view.

7. Bookshare members and volunteers network together to do things such as learn computer skills, help with job searches, learn to cook, and of course, to talk about what we’re reading. Bookshare promotes relationships between its members and volunteers so that there is a genuine community that offers help to people when needed. While Bookshare is an online library, it’s also a true community with laughter, passion, and action. It’s a place where I have met several of my close friends. The people are Bookshare’s greatest secret and their most important asset.

So, are you curious about what you’re missing? If so, head over to Bookshare and have a look around. You can search the collection before joining, so do a search for some of the books you want to read. Chances are good that you’ll find what you’re looking for and more.

Welcome to The Scanners Guild Blog. Your time is valuable, and I’m glad you’ve stopped by. Without readers, a blog is just one person’s rants. Your thoughts and ideas are important to me, and I hope you’ll comment on posts that interest you.

My name is Monica Willyard, and I created this blog to talk about an exciting project that turns print books and newspapers into spoken words or Braille for people who are blind or who have a learning disability. It’s a service called Bookshare, and I’m a volunteer there. We’ve got somewhere around 18,000 members who can access over 39,000 books and several hundred local newspapers online. This service is completely legal and is provided for by a United States copyright law that allows a service to make print books readable for people who can’t read books. Many of Bookshare’s members are blind, and there are also people with learning disabilities and some people who can read but cannot physically hold a book due to an injury or cerebral palsy. Bookshare has a group of dedicated volunteers who scan and then proofread the scanned books before Bookshare’s tools turn the book into a Daisy audio file or a Braille file. Blind people use a Braille notetaker that is similar to a PDA or Palm Pilot for reading. The notetaker speaks and shows text in Braille as well.

If you or a family member are disabled, you can find out more about Bookshare by visiting Bookshare’s website. In fact, if you are a student, the Department Of Education has sponsored you with a grant so you can get a free membership. If you’re not a student, the yearly membership fee is low and works out to around $6 per month for the first year and $4 per month for following years. You pay more than that for a cup of coffee or a night at the movies. In exchange, you get access to over 39,000 books and newspapers from around the country. Finally, you can earn a Bookshare membership through working as a volunteer and earning membership credits.

If you love to read and wish you could turn that pleasure into something that can make life better for someone else, please consider becoming a volunteer. We need people from every background and at every level of computer knowledge,so don’t worry if the idea of scanning a book sounds like technology from outer space. We have both blind and sighted volunteers, and you don’t even need to own a scanner to help us in a big way. You’ll meet some friendly and talented people and join a supportive community that sees friendship as part of volunteering.

Oops. There goes my telephone, so I’m signing off for now. At any rate, feel free to poke around the site and explore the blogroll. I’m glad you’re here.