Nice article in the San Francisco Chronicle on our Harry Potter scanning project, entitled Books ripped up, fed to online library for the blind. Hundreds of Bookshare.org members have downloaded the book already, while I'm waiting for my wife to finish the print copy my daughter read first!
Bringing Millions of Books to Billions of People: Making the Book Truly Accessible
I believe in the power of books to change the world. That is not a particularly radical belief among librarians, but I hope to make you believe even more in the power of books. Literacy and access to knowledge underpins just about every social good, from education, to economic development, to health, to women’s empowerment, democracy and respect for human rights. Today, we are poised at a moment in time where we can transcend the limitations of past book technologies and bring the power of books to all humans. To bring the power of books to everybody on this planet, we must make books truly accessible. Love of the print book. It made me who I am. I’m a big fan of the printed book and always have been. However, as a technology, printed books come with serious challenges for some communities (like blind people) that technology can unlock. Consider the issues with printed books. First, they are place-based. In order to read a printed book, you must have physical access to it....
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