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About Bookshare.org |
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Find Out More
Press Releases
March 13, 2008, Palo Alto, CA, Volo, IL - Bookshare.org Partners With Don Johnston To Provide Free Text Reader For Print Disabled Students Bookshare.org and Don Johnston have announced a partnership to provide qualified print disabled students with a free text reader to access electronic books from the Bookshare.org library.
January 30, 2008, Palo Alto, CA and Barcelona Spain - Bookshare.org and Code Factory Announce Partnership To Introduce Mobile Technology Bookshare.org and Code Factory have announced the formation of a partnership to introduce technology that allows Bookshare.org members to read digital books on their mobile devices.
January 29, 2008, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org Releases NIMAS Validator Software Benetech's Bookshare.org service has released a free beta version of its NIMAS Validator software application that locates errors in digital books produced under the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).
October 15, 2007, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org Receives Five-Year $32 Million Award From U.S. Department of Education The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Benetech's Bookshare.org project $32 million over five years to significantly expand the availability of accessible electronic books and the software for reading those books. Bookshare.org is the world's largest accessible library of scanned books and periodicals.
November 8, 2006, Palo Alto, CA - Benetech's Bookshare.org project announced this week that its network of volunteers has succeeded in scanning 30,000 books, creating the world's largest accessible online library.
September 18, 2006, Palo Alto, CA - Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman Receives 2006 MacArthur Jim Fruchterman, CEO of The Benetech Initiative, has been awarded a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Each of this year’s 25 MacArthur Fellows learned this week that they will receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” funding over the next five years.
March 22, 2006, Palo Alto, CA - Major Omidyar Network Investment Lifts Global Nonprofit to New Level Benetech, the global technology nonprofit based in Palo Alto, announced today that it has received a $1.5 million investment from Omidyar Network. This major investment will help Benetech deliver on its ambitious three-year organizational business plan and focus on its grassroots digital initiatives in disability literacy and human rights. Read the Omidyar Network press release.
March 22, 2006, Palo Alto, CA, Baltimore, MD - Accessible Newspapers and Magazines Now Available Daily Bookshare.org and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) have teamed up to make local and national newspapers and magazines available and accessible online to people who are blind or have other print-related disabilities. Read the NFB-NEWSLINE® and Bookshare.org press release.
September 22, 2005, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org selected as EdNET 2005 Rookie of the Year finalist The Heller Reports™, a leading provider of education market news and events, chose Bookshare.org as one of this year’s EdNET 2005 Industry Awards.
March 16, 2005, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org Offers Books in Spanish Bookshare.org has expanded its online collection of accessible digital books to include books in Spanish.
February 17, 2005, Palo Alto, CA - Online Book-Sharing Service Increases Literacy Skills Among Students with Visual Impairments What started as an online book sharing service for people with print disabilities, Bookshare.org, has grown into a cost-effective technology tool that is helping to improve literacy among K-12 and college students with visual or reading impairments by providing access to over 20,000 scanned books.
January 11, 2005, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org's Library Surpasses 20,000 Titles Bookshare.org announced today that its online collection of accessible digital books has now exceeded 20,000 titles. With its collection growing by over 100 new books per week, Bookshare.org remains the world's largest provider of accessible digital books to individuals with visual impairments and learning disabilities.
July 22, 2004, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org Announces Results of National School Initiative Bookshare.org has announced the results of a successful national school pilot initiative, funded in part by the NEC Foundation of America. Read the press release here.
April 23, 2004, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org, Lighthouse International Unveil Employment and Career Development Collection of Accessible Digital Books Bookshare.org and Lighthouse International today unveiled a special collection of books - the Employment and Career Development Collection from the Lighthouse International.
March 12, 2004, Palo Alto, CA - Indiana University Partners with Bookshare.org
to Expand Access to College Textbooks for Students with Disabilities
Indiana University, one of the nation's leading alternative text production facilities serving students with disabilities, has partnered with Bookshare.org to make college textbooks available to students with disabilities nationwide.
February 17, 2004, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org Launches Institutional Access Bookshare.org now offers Institutional Access, allowing schools and groups to provide accessible digital books directly to students or other individuals with disabilities they serve.
March 4, 2003, Palo Alto, CA - Publisher O'Reilly Makes Books Accessible to People with Disabilities Worldwide Under Landmark Agreement with Bookshare.org Bookshare.org announced an agreement with O'Reilly & Associates to make digital versions of O'Reilly books available worldwide to qualifying users with disabilities.
February 24, 2003, Palo Alto, CA - Pulse Data and Benetech Announce BrailleNote/Bookshare.org Collaboration Pulse Data International and Benetech today announced a formal collaboration integrating Benetech's Bookshare.org initiative with Pulse Data's BrailleNote family of products.
December 10, 2002, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org wins award from Social Enterprise Alliance Benetech's Bookshare.org was awarded a prize for its exemplary "earned income" project in the Social Enterprise Alliance's "Earned Income Showcase".
Bookshare.org is recipient of Stockholm Challenge Award Of 600 IT projects from 78 different countries, Benetech's Bookshare.org was selected one of eight winners in the Stockholm Challenge. Bookshare.org was recognized in the field of education.
October 23, 2002, Palo Alto, CA - Bookshare.org, Braille Institute Work Together To Increase Access to Braille Books Bookshare.org's extensive online collection of electronic books can now be seamlessly ordered as hard copy Braille books, to be embossed and proofread by professionals at Braille Institute of America, Inc., significantly increasing access to books for Braille readers nationwide.
February 21, 2002, Palo Alto, CA - Benetech Announces Launch of Bookshare.org, Feb. 21, 2002 Leading nonprofit technology developer offers the first digital book-sharing service for people with print disabilities.
Bookshare.org in the News
Blindskills, Inc February 13, 2008:
The $32 Million Question: Q & A With Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman On The Future of Bookshare.org
Closing the Gap February 6, 2008: Bookshare.org Supports Student Readers
The Kentucky Council of the Blind (KCB) Radio January 23, 2008: Bookshare.org's Customer Support Manager John Glass interviewed about the expansion of Bookshare.org's services to print-disabled readers. The broadcast is available online.
WinnetkaTalk November 1, 2007: Bookshare.org's partnership with The Hadley School for the Blind, which provides tuition-free distance education programs for 10,000 blind students and their families each year.
The San Jose Mercury News October 19, 2007: U.S. Department of Education's gives $32 million five-year grant to Benetech's Bookshare.org project. The article gives well-deserved credit to Carrie Karnos and collection Development Manager Claire O'Brien who see to it that Bookshare.org members have access to the latest bestsellers and educational books.
Stanford Magazine July/August 2007: The Stanford Magazine has published a profile of Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman entitled Geeks For Good. Fruchterman was a PhD student at Stanford and together with another Stanford student, built a reading machine for the blind that became the first of many social technology projects from Benetech.
CBS Evening News February 22, 2007: Bookshare.org Profiles In “American Spirit” Series
AFB AccessWorld January 2007: Celebrating the Naming of a Genius: An Interview with Jim Fruchterman covers Fruchterman's 2006 MacArthur Fellowship and the expansion of Bookshare.org.
Fairfax County Times December 6, 2006: Bookshare.org volunteer Matthew Devcich, who created an Eagle Scout service project that scanned and proofread 24 books, has been profiled by his hometown paper. The Fairfax County Times published a story entitled, "Helping Everyone Read," which described how Devcich recruited a group of volunteers to scan in his favorite books on thoroughbred racing.
IEEE December 2006: The IEEE Spectrum magazine has published an extensive profile of Benetech CEO Jim Fruchterman in its December issue. Together with an introduction by Senior Editor Tekla S. Perry, the story "Doing Well by Doing Good," offers a detailed history of Benetech, its current projects, and Jim's role in promoting social entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.
San Jose Mercury News November 13, 2006: Benetech Founder and CEO Jim Fruchterman published an OpEd in the San Jose Mercury News urging Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and technologists to apply their skills to solve pressing social problems. Fruchterman's essay, Build Great Companies, Then Help Build A Great World points to current projects launched by high-tech philanthropists and encourages social entrepreneurs to link up with like-minded people.
KPIX (CBS 5) Newscast August 9, 2005: San Francisco-based television station presents a news story that highlights the work of Benetech’s Bookshare.org. Read KPIX broadcast transcript.
San Francisco Chronicle July 15, 2005: Article by Maura Thurman: Books ripped up, fed to online library for the blind. Focuses on Bookshare.org library containing more than 24,000 books. Read "Books ripped up..." article.
eSchool News Online May 7, 2004: Bookshare.org offers 17,000 royalty-free texts — Thanks to the aid of Bookshare.org, a non-profit digital book service based in Palo Alto, Calif., educators have access to a library of thousands of titles... Read the eWorld News Online article.
eSight's Network News October 2, 2002: Blossoming of the eBook and What It Means to Blind and Visually Impaired People
The Chronicle of Philanthropy March 7, 2002: Bookshare.org was inspired by Napster, but with one big difference. Unlike the embattled music-sharing service, Bookshare expects no legal fights over its use of copyrighted materials. Read Charity's First Project Puts Digital Books in Hands of Disabled
LA Times February 25, 2002: Blind Gain New Site for Literature
KRON 4 February 22, 2002: Silicon Valley Tech Company Helps Blind Read
Christian Science Monitor February 21, 2002: Putting Books Online for the Visually Disabled
USA Today February 21, 2002: Bookshare.org Opens Up Choices for Disabled Readers
San Jose Mercury News February 20, 2002: Improving Life for People With Disabilities
The Braille Forum February 10, 2002: Bookshare.org: A Community for Sharing and Reading
Large Print Reviews January 29, 2002: Bookshare.org: An Online Library for the Print Disabled
Braille Monitor November 2001: Bookshare.org: Books Without Barriers
More Information
For additional information about Bookshare.org, please contact:
info@bookshare.org
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Bookshare.org was created and is maintained by Benetech, a nonprofit organization, and is Bobby-approved.
Copyright © 2001-2008, Beneficent Technology, Inc. (The Benetech Initiative)
All other product names are the trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
The Bookshare trademark is used under license from its registered owner, Follett Library Resources division of Follett Corporation.
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