NIMAC for Publishers & Vendors: Overview & Batch File Submission Procedures December 2015

Welcome to the Webinar! In today’s training, we will cover: –A brief overview of the NIMAC –Logging into to the system –Using the NIMAC Validation Wizard –How to submit files by FTP or DVD –Searching the inventory –Tips for avoiding common mistakes –How to get more help!

What is the NIMAC? The NIMAC is the National Instructional Materials Access Center. Created by IDEA 2004, we are a federally- funded, online file repository of source files in the NIMAS format. Files are submitted by K-12 publishers and made available to authorized users and accessible media producers across the U.S.

What is the NIMAC? The NIMAC currently works with over 120 K-12 educational publishers. Over 40,000 files have been accepted into the repository. All 50 states, plus all of the eligible territories, have coordinated with the NIMAC. Over 400 authorized users and accessible media producers work with NIMAC.

What is OverDrive? OverDrive is a leading digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, music and video. They are also the NIMAC system vendor, providing our online system, technical support and batch file uploading services. OverDrive is located in Cleveland, Ohio, while NIMAC is located in Louisville, Ky. is the address for the technical support team at

What is NIMAS? NIMAS is the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. Based on the DAISY standard, it is an XML-based file format. NIMAS is the only file format the NIMAC receives. As a “source file” format, files are not directly distributed to students for use in the classroom.

How is NIMAS used? As source files, NIMAS files are used to produce accessible formats such as braille, DAISY text, audio, or large print on behalf of NIMAS-eligible students. IDEA 2004 requires that students be served under IDEA (i.e., that they be K-12 students with an IEP) and have a qualifying disability in order to receive materials produced from NIMAS.

What types of materials does NIMAC accept? “... printed textbooks and related printed core materials that are written and published primarily for use in elementary school and secondary school instruction and are required by a State educational agency or local educational agency for use by students in the classroom.”

How do publishers work with the NIMAC? Publishers submit NIMAS files to the NIMAC when NIMAS language is included in print book purchase agreements and adoption contracts. Publishers are also welcome to submit files in anticipation of such contracts. NIMAC is not involved in the relationship between publishers and customers.

What is the publisher portal? The NIMAC provides a publisher portal (user interface) so that publishers can log in and view or manage their inventory and users at any time. Files that are 60 MB or smaller can also be directly uploaded to the NIMAC. Access to the publisher portal requires a login and password.

What is a “super user”? The “super user” is the administrative account holder. This person can create additional “sub user” accounts for vendors or others at the company. Instructions for creating vendor accounts can be found on the Support tab or at the NIMAC website:

How do I log into the NIMAC? The link to the login page can be found on our website home page: Or you can bookmark the page directly: (If you are a vendor, you’ll need the publisher to create an account for you.)

The Support Tab

This page has downloadable resources for publishers and vendors. On this page, you can download: –the NIMAC Validation Wizard installation file –the NIMAC batch delivery metadata sheet –training presentations like this one!

Delivering Files

How do I deliver my NIMAS files to NIMAC? Files larger than 60 MB must be delivered directly to NIMAC’s system vendor, OverDrive, Inc., as a batch delivery. Files that are 60 MB or smaller may be directly uploaded into the NIMAC system through your publisher account. However, it is also fine to submit smaller files by FTP if this is more convenient for you.

Manual File Uploads For information on how to directly upload smaller files, join us for our upcoming webinar, “NIMAC Publisher Portal: Features & Manual Uploads.” You can also find the PowerPoint on the Support tab or at our website:

Delivering files by FTP OverDrive asks that files over 60 MB but under 1 GB be provided to OverDrive by FTP. If you do not yet have an FTP folder at OverDrive, you will need to to request one.

Requesting FTP access In order to create an FTP login in for you, OverDrive will need to know: –Your NIMAC login ID. –Note: If you are a vendor, you will need separate FTP credentials for each publisher you work with. –If the publisher has not yet created a NIMAC user account for you, you will need to request that they do this for you.

Delivering files on DVD Files that are 1 GB or larger should be burned to DVD and mailed to: OverDrive, Inc. Attn: NIMAC Batch Upload 1 OverDrive Way Cleveland, OH USA

Using the Validation Wizard

Validation Wizard ALL files submitted to the NIMAC, whether through manual upload or batch, should be run through the NIMAC Validation Wizard before submission. We also request that you check your zip files before FTP submission by verifying that they open. This helps ensure that the file compression was successful and the zip file is not corrupt.

Validation Wizard The Validation Wizard is available for download by all publishers and vendors from the Support tab of the publisher portal. This is a small stand-alone program. There is only a Windows version of the validator at this time. You can export your validation results as an HTML file if you wish.

Using the Validation Wizard The validation wizard checks that: –The XML is well formed and validates to the NIMAS DTD (and MathML DTD, if applicable) –All images referenced in the XML and OPF are present in the images folder The wizard does not: –Verify that metadata are correct/complete –Evaluate content tagging decisions –Detect extraneous files in the zip archive

Validation Errors Any errors that show up on the report must be corrected before submitting the file set. Note: Certain errors may stop the validator. After making corrections, run the file through the wizard again to ensure that there are no additional issues.

Corrupt Files After zipping your NIMAS file sets, please go back and check to ensure that the files were not corrupted during the zipping process. Just click on the zip file. If it opens, the file is probably okay and not corrupt. Please check all files before you deliver them by FTP or on DVD.

The Metadata Excel Sheet

Batch Metadata Excel Sheet All batch deliveries for *new* files must be accompanied by the batch load metadata spreadsheet. This sheet, and the NIMAC Metadata Guidelines, can be found on the Support Tab of the publisher portal, and can also be found at the NIMAC web site: Please do not create your own sheet.

Batch Metadata Excel Sheet The Excel sheet should ONLY be submitted if the ISBNs being delivered are not already in the system. Please do not include the sheet if you are sending replacement files for ISBNs that are already in the system. If you don’t know if the files have already been previously submitted, please log into your NIMAC account and check.

Searching the Inventory

Resubmissions If the file is already in the system, it is a RESUBMISSION. No Excel sheet should be submitted with the delivery for the file. If some of your files are NEW and others are RESUBMISSIONS, please separate these into two separate deliveries.

Certified Resubmissions If the file is already in the Certified inventory, the file must be moved out of Certified by the NIMAC before a resubmission can be processed. Please contact the NIMAC at to let us know if you need to have a file moved out of Certified so that it can be replaced by an updated or corrected file set.

Metadata Excel Sheet If the file is not already in the system, you will need to supply the Batch Metadata Excel sheet. The sheet is used by OverDrive to create the system records for all files in the delivery. The metadata sheet contents should exactly match what you have submitted in the OPF.

Metadata Excel Sheet The *only* exception to this is that all records created by the NIMAC system automatically include the default Rights statement. Please do NOT include this statement in the Excel sheet. The Supplementary (Optional) Rights Statement column is ONLY used if the publisher wishes to include an additional statement.

Batch Load Notifications

Batch Load Notification Batch deliveries are processed and uploaded at OverDrive, not at the NIMAC. In order for OverDrive to process your delivery, they must be notified. ALL batch deliveries, by FTP or on DVD, must be accompanied by an notification to OverDrive at :

Batch Load Notification In the “Subject” line of the , please include the type of delivery, publisher name, and the number of NIMAS files in the delivery. For example: Subject: FTP / McGraw-Hill/ 21 files Subject: DVD / Pearson / 1 file

Batch Load Notification FTP notifications must include: –Your NIMAC login ID* –Your FTP login ID* –Name of the folder the FTP files are in –A list of all files included in the delivery –Notice of whether the files are NEW submissions or RESUBMISSIONS * If you are a vendor working with multiple publishers, be sure to reference the correct credentials.

“New” versus “Resubmission” “New” files are those that have never been uploaded to the NIMAC in the past. “Resubmissions” are files that are already in the system and are being submitted again, either to reflect publisher updates to the book (under the same ISBN) or corrections to the file set required by NIMAC.

“New” versus “Resubmission” “New” files must always be accompanied by a batch delivery Excel sheet. This sheet is used to create records in the system for each file. Please DO NOT include an Excel sheet with deliveries of resubmissions. Including one is likely to cause confusion to the batch processing team, which can result in a delay in processing your files.

“New” versus “Resubmission” OverDrive has separate processing queues for New files and Resubmissions. Please do not include both in the same delivery as this will lead to processing delays. Submit the files as two separate deliveries: one delivery for New files and the other for the Resubmissions.

Batch Load Notification DVD deliveries should also include a packing slip inside the package that includes your NIMAC login ID and a list of the files in the delivery. Optionally, you may also include the dispatch date and anticipated arrival date in the notification.

Automated Tracking Ticket When you have submitted the notification to you will receive an automated tracking Please respond to any correspondence from OverDrive using this same ticket. If a file fails validation or is corrupt and you send it again by FTP, you may use this same ticket to notify OverDrive.

Automated Tracking Ticket However, once the files are uploaded to the NIMAC, the ticket is closed. The ticket cannot be used again to notify OverDrive of any subsequent file delivery. If your files are uploaded, reviewed by NIMAC and must be resubmitted with corrections, you must create a new tracking ticket by sending a new to

How often should I FTP files? Files are batch processed by OverDrive and uploaded nightly. We recommend consolidating files into one batch of resubmissions per day, per publisher, and one batch of new files, per day, per publisher. Submitting multiple small batches on the same day is not beneficial and could lead to processing delays.

File Review & Helpful Reminders

File Review & Certification Once files are uploaded to the system, NIMAC staff review and certify the files. This review checks that metadata are correct and complete, and includes some additional XML quality checks. When files are certified, the publisher receives an automated with the digital certificate number for the file set.

File Review & Certification NIMAC staff are able to make many OPF and portal metadata corrections without requiring that files be resubmitted. However, if a file has a problem that NIMAC can’t fix for you, we will send detailed feedback so the file can be corrected and resubmitted as quickly as possible.

Reminders Here are a few reminders of issues that can be cause for the resubmission of a file with corrections. Please keep these in mind as you prepare your NIMAS files to help ensure that they can be reviewed and certified as quickly as possible.

Reminders: PDFs Be sure your PDF is complete. The PDF must include: –Complete title of book –ISBN –Copyright statement –Publisher imprint

Reminders: PDFs If the full book title, author or ISBN appears only on the book cover, then the cover PDFs must be also be provided. The PDF in the NIMAS file set is used only for file verification purposes. It is *not* used in the production of accessible formats for students. Please ensure that your PDF files are not unnecessarily large.

Reminders: XML Metadata Please do not include a metadata header in the NIMAS XML file. The NIMAS specification calls for the tag to be empty. Including non-NIMAS metadata in an XML header often delays certification as the metadata must be removed and the file resubmitted by the vendor.

Reminder: Identifiers The Identifier for the file set should be the 13-digit ISBN that appears on the print book. Please do not use an ISBN that does not appear on the book as the Identifier. The Identifier should also be used as the name of the zip file.

Reminder: Missing Assets After transferring files by FTP, be sure to check the folder to see that all files are there. A common cause of processing delay is that files referenced in the notification are not found on the FTP site.

Reminder: Extraneous Mac files Sometimes if a Mac computer is used in creating or compressing the file set, duplicate or extraneous files end up included in the zip archive. These additional files can cause the OverDrive batch upload process to fail and can also cause confusion to end users. Please ensure that no additional Mac- generated files are added to the zip file.

Reminder: New Imprints In order to prevent the upload of inventory to the wrong publisher account, files are checked before being added to the batch queue to ensure that the publisher imprint included in the metadata sheet is an imprint associated with that publisher account. Please notify NIMAC if you need to have a new imprint associated with your account.

Need Additional Help? For any questions about how to use NIMAC, the status of files in the NIMAC system, or feedback provided by our staff, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us for assistance:

OverDrive Support For questions or technical problems related to a batch delivery, contact the OverDrive Batch Team at: For help with any other system issues, contact OverDrive Technical Support at:

Producing NIMAS For technical questions about the NIMAS specification or preparing NIMAS files, contact the National Center for AEM: Skip Stahl, Co-Director