Bookshare
Bookshare: An Online Library of ebooks
What is Bookshare?
Bookshare is an online library of accessible ebooks and educational reading materials for students who have print disabilities. Bookshare makes thousands of digital books available including textbooks, literature, current popular reading, reference materials, newspapers and periodicals, and teacher recommended readings. It is presently funded through the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs and it is free for all qualified students.
Who Can Qualify For Bookshare?
A student must qualify as having a print disability that severely inhibits or prevents him or her from reading traditional print materials. Through the special education / 504 process of qualification, a student must be confirmed as having a print disability that severely inhibits or prevents them from reading traditional print materials.
The qualifying categories include:
A student with a learning disability, such as dyslexia, qualifies for Bookshare as long as a competent authority confirms that the learning disability significantly interferes with reading.
A student who is blind or has low vision and who is unable to read standard print, causing a significant impact on his/her ability to access text.
A student with a physical disability who is unable to read standard print due to the impact of his or her physical disability, which significantly interferes with his or her reading.
Who Doesn't Automatically Qualify?
Source: https://www.bookshare.org/cms/bookshare-me/who-qualifies
People with disabilities such as:
autism
intellectual disabilities
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
hearing loss
dysgraphia
dyscalculia
people whose first language is not English DO NOT QUALIFY ON THESE CRITERIA ALONE under the laws and agreements that determine Bookshare eligibility
However, it is quite possible that a person with one or more of these disabilities could still qualify for Bookshare because of an accompanying print disability. For example, a person who is both deaf and blind, or who has ADHD and significant dyslexia, could qualify.
Bookshare Membership and Bookshare Sponsorship:
As stated above, a student must first qualify as meeting Bookshare's eligibility requirement(s). Once it is determined a student qualifies, an organizational membership is set-up for him or her by the AT Department.
Please contact Christine Jimenez for this purpose.
At the same time, the AT Department must determine who will be the student's Bookshare sponsor, a staff member whose responsibilities will be in setting up a reading list of books on the Bookshare website that will allow a student to access books based on the student's preferences, educational needs, teacher recommendations and/or requirements. A Bookshare sponsor will be provided his/her own password by Bookshare, once his/her name and school e-mail address is forwarded to Bookshare.
Important Warning to Sponsors:
As a Sponsor, never enter any new student names or sponsors on your own as this can potentially make our students and district ineligible for Bookshare. This is a very closely monitored program by Bookshare (they keep track of what books and the number of books are being downloaded for students) as they are very wary of breaking copyright laws. We can lose all privileges and access to bookshare if names/sponsors or books are downloaded inappropriately (i.e. if downloaded for a bookshare member and used by a non-Bookshare students). Never share your bookshare account with others or allow non-sponsors to download books for you.
How is Bookshare Funded?
Funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), allows Bookshare to be free for all qualified U.S. students.
Accessing Bookshare Books on a Chromebook
Once student and educator accounts are created (see links below), there are two options for reading books on a chromebook:
The first option is to use the Bookshare WebReader in the Chrome browser; this option includes fewer steps to access the text and provides an adequate reader, but it has fewer tools and options for customizing the experience. It is accessed from the Bookshare site when a student clicks "Read Now" next to the selected book.
The second option is to save an EPUB in Google Drive, then to open the EPUB using a PDF Reader that is built into the Read & Write Chrome extension; this option involves more steps but has more features and options while reading.
For more information about both options, see bit.ly/RWbookshare.
Instructions for Sponsors: How to Create Reading Lists
If you have set up your Bookshare sponsor password with Bookshare, you can log onto the bookshare website: www.bookshare.org and sign in using your school e-mail address and Bookshare password.
Click on “My Bookshare”.
On the left side of the page, select “My Reading Lists”.
Once the Reading List page opens, on the right side of the page, select “Create Reading List”.
Title the name of your reading list (e.g. “AMS 7th grade English class” or “John Smith”) and a description, if desired. Once you are doen, click on the blue save button.
Once you click “Save”, the next page that opens will allow you to add Members to your reading list. Click on “Members”.
On the next page, click on “Add Members” and select the students you want added to your reading list by clicking on the box left of the student’s name. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on “Add Selected Members”. If you are adding only one or two students, it would be easier to just type in his/her name in the “Search box” placed above the entire list of Bookshare members. Once his/her name appears, click on “Add Member” and be sure click on the box to the left of the student’s name. Then click “Add selected member”.
If you want to add another member to a previously created Reading list, go to “My Bookshare” - > “My Reading Lists” - > “Members”. Add a student by clicking on “Add Member”. Type in the name of the student in the search box, click on box to left of his/her name and then “Add selected members”.
Instructions for Sponsors: How to Add Books for Students
Go to www.bookshare.org
Log-in using your own name or email and password
In the Search box, type in the title/author/ISBN of a desired book/textbook and then press Enter. (If you do not know the title, author, or ISBN click on “Advanced search” to narrow your search, i.e. by subject, grade.)
A list of books will appear. Locate the title of the book you want (if it is a textbook, make sure that the copyright date, publisher, edition matches with the classroom textbook) and click on “Add to Reading List” - if you have already created a reading list! If not, see instruction on Creating a Reading List.
Click on the down arrow to locate the reading list that you want to add the book to (e.g. “AMS 7th grade English class”). Once you select the reading list where you want the book to be added, click on “Add”.
Click on “My Bookshare”. Once it opens, select “My Reading lists” on the right side of the page.
Once “My Reading lists” opens, you will see a list of the reading lists you have created for your students. If you have done the above correctly, you should see the book you added in the Reading List. Your student is now able to access the book using his/her bookshare username and password.
Note that you may also want to check to make sure your student has been allowed access to the book by clicking on “Members”. If your student’s name is not listed under “Members” within that reading list, you will need to add him/her. To add, simply click on “Members”. Once it opens, click on the “Add Members” button. The list of all bookshare members will appear. To add a student, click on the box to the left of a student’s name. This student will now have access to the books in that particular Reading List.
Student Instructions: How to Use WebReader to Access Books
Have your student log onto: www.bookshare.org and sign into Bookshare using his/her Bookshare Username and Password, provided by the student's Bookshare sponsor.
The books that have been added by the sponsor will automatically be listed in the students’ Reading List(s).
To read a book in the list, the student clicks on “Read Now”. The book will automatically open in the Bookshare Web Reader (the first time a book is opened may take a few seconds, particularly if it is a textbook).
Once the book opens, chapters/pages can be selected by clicking on the chapter icon on top of the page. There is a settings button to change font size and speed of reading. At this time there is only one voice available, a Female. This will probably change in the near future (we hope!).
Students may be able to open Read & Write web toolbar for additional tools.