Bookshare.org Library Now Free to All U.S. Students with Qualifying Disabilities

Memberships for U.S. schools and qualifying U.S. students of all ages including K-12, post-secondary and adult education, are now free, thanks to special funding from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Here's the announcement about the OSEP award. To sign up for Bookshare.org, please read more about student access.

Bookshare.org believes that people with print disabilities deserve the same ease of access to books and periodicals that people without disabilities enjoy. The Bookshare.org library provides print disabled people in the United States with legal access to over 37,750 books and 150 periodicals that are converted to Braille, large print or digital formats for text to speech audio. More about Bookshare.org

Bookshare.org News:

• April 4, 2008 - eSchool News Covers Free Text Reader from Bookshare.org and Don Johnston
• March 28, 2008 - Benetech Wins AT&T Technology Innovation Award
• More News

Useful Links:

• Create School Account
• Bookshelf, Favorite Downloads, Reading Lists
• A demonstration of how Bookshare.org works and how synthetic speech sounds
• First time visitor? Check out the Demo page
• How to subscribe to Bookshare.org
• Resources for schools, teachers and organizations
• Bookshare.org International
• Spanish books in Bookshare.org
• Volunteer corner
• Learn about the Friends of Bookshare.org
• View the Friends Of Bookshare.org Wishlist of books
• Sound bites: what members are saying
• Connections: Staying in touch
• Make a donation
• Gift subscriptions

Book Shelf

• Children and young adult books: Check out the list of teacher recommended reading for middle and high school students. Additionally, we have all Newbery Award Winners.
  


• Embossed Braille: Any excellent- or good-quality book can be ordered in embossed Braille, by members or non-members. Find out more about ordering embossed Braille books.
  


• Favorite Downloads: Browse the list of books read most often by subscribers.
  


• Get Your Daily News from Bookshare.org: More than 150 national, regional and local newspapers and magazines are available for download in BRF and DAISY formats through a partnership with the National Federation of the Blind's Newsline® System.
  


• January 2008 Best Sellers: Bookshare.org is proud to be able to bring to its subscribers all the books that have appeared in the top 10 on the New York Times® Best Sellers lists in fiction and nonfiction, hardcover and paperback alike, from September, 2005 through December, 2007. These titles are available now for download by our subscribers in both DAISY and BRF formats. We're working on our January 2008 best sellers; as new titles appear on these lists, we purchase these books, process them in-house, and add them to our collection. Visit our New York Times® Best Sellers page.
  


• The collection is growing: Volunteers are approving more each day. Share your love of reading with others by submitting your favorite books.
  

Purchase a gift subscription to Bookshare.org

If you would like to purchase a gift subscription to Bookshare.org for a friend or to make a donation enabling us to purchase books or help those who need help with their subscription fees, you can learn more on our gift subscription information page.

Bookshare.org services available for schools!

Register for a pre-set number of books to download and deliver directly to your qualified students, or sponsor individual subscriptions for your students to access Bookshare.org on their own. Services are now free to all U.S. Schools and students with a qualifying print disability. Find out more about services for schools.

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.