-For those of you who might have missed Jim Fruchterman's post on the subject, in response to a question about Baen books, I'm posting it here again. Actually, I'm not sure if it was posted here or on the bookshare list, or both but anyway, here is the pertinent part: G.Cindy "The question of duplication (with other possible means of obtaining > accessible books) comes up frequently. Our general answer is that we'd > like to have the book. There are several reasons for this: > - format problems (what if PDF doesn't work for you? What if you're > deaf and blind and need Braille?) > - format flexibility (what if you prefer Braille over audio, even though > you can hear? What if seeing and hearing the text at the same time works > better for you? What if you want to read one way while mobile and > another way while in your home or office?) > - including some Bookshare.org users who are excluded from some sources > (because they have a learning disability, because they are in a > different country) > - series completeness (we're increasingly trying to make entire series > available on Bookshare.org) > - ease of access (what percentage of print disabled people are likely to > know about a given source, such as Baen's deal?) > - cost savings (it's cheaper for us to deal with our users than it is > for publishers to do the same: that's often the motivation for working > with us) > - Lowering the barrier to access by increasing task success (we want the > new and existing user to find the book he or she wants the great > majority of the time, so that they are confident in the future of having > access) > > I'm probably forgetting more reasons, but the key one is Bookshare.org > ethic for collection development. If one person in our community > thought it was worth scanning and validating, we want that book. That's > why 90% of the Bookshare.org collection is there. Our low cost to add a > book because of our dedicated volunteer community makes this a > responsible policy, while empowering our readers." > > Jim Fruchterman > To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to > bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. > > WISH LIST (called Requested Additions To The Bookshare Collection)is available at http://people.delphiforums.com/jamiecalton/Book_Requests.htm http://www.friendsofbookshare.org/ http://studentpages.alma.edu/~07jmyate/book_requests.htm www.jbrownell.com for miscellaneous and useful threads ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.