1. Getting Started: Bookshare
Unit One

2. Introduction
In this unit, you will learn about Bookshare.org, a major online resource of digital materials (both audio and text-based) which are compatible with the Book Port as well as many other similar devices. You will discover what types of materials are available and in what formats. You will learn how to set up an account for a student, download books for that student and, for older or more advanced students, teach them how to download materials for themselves. Activities will provide practice in downloading materials from Bookshare and transferring them to the Book Port.

3. What is Bookshare?
Bookshare is “an accessible online library for people with print disabilities.” -(bookshare.org, 03/09/2015) The Bookshare library contains thousands of fiction and nonfiction books, magazines, educational materials and other literature in a variety of accessible digital formats.

4. Available Formats on Bookshare
Bookshare materials can be downloaded in a wide variety of formats which are compatible with the Book Port Plus and DT.
These include:
DAISY text
DAISY text with images
Braille Ready Format (.BRF)
Standard audio
DAISY audio

5. Available Formats on Bookshare (continued)
As you learned in the previous module, DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) files are text-based or audio documents with embedded indexing in them that makes it easy to navigate between chapters, sections, pages, etc. DAISY with images documents include photographs, drawings, maps and other graphics which appear in the original printed documents and which may be helpful to those readers with some useable vision.
Braille Ready Format or “.BRF” files are text-based files which have been translated into braille for use with refreshable braille displays or reading devices with refreshable braille output. These files can also be “printed” using a braille embosser.
Audio is typically produced using a high-quality text-to-speech engine as apposed to a human narrator. Standard audio files are distributed in MPEG layer 3 (.MP3) format which makes them compatible with a wide variety of digital audio players. DAISY audio with imbedded indexing is also an option. Both formats are compatible with the Book Port Plus and DT.

6. Available Formats on Bookshare (continued)
Some of the materials are in the public domain, but the majority of them are under copyright protection and their distribution is restricted to those who have a proven print disability (visual impairment, dyslexia or other impairment that makes it difficult or impossible to read standard printed materials). To learn who is eligible for Bookshare visit the following website:

7. The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)
The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 mandates that publishers of instructional materials (textbooks, workbooks, study guides, etc.) used in primary and secondary education (K-12) provide these materials in an electronic form suitable for conversion into a wide variety of alternative formats such as audio, braille, electronic braille, e-text and large print. The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard, or NIMAS for short, is a set of guidelines which establish how these electronic files are to be produced and formatted. These files are stored in a central repository called the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) and are made available to individuals and agencies serving students with print disabilities.

8. The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (continued)
Bookshare can retrieve these materials from NIMAC and render them into the formats described above. These materials can then be downloaded by qualified students or their sponsors.
NIMAS materials are not a part of the Bookshare online library and are only made available upon request. In Florida, requests for NIMAS materials to be made available via Bookshare must be made through the Florida Instructional Materials Center for the Visually Impaired (FIMC-VI) online ordering system.

9. Student Memberships
Any student enrolled in a primary or secondary education program (K-12) who has a proven print disability is eligible to receive a free membership to Bookshare. This should include any student being served by a teacher of the visually impaired.  

10. Types of Memberships
There are two types of memberships: “organizational” and “individual.”
An organizational membership is typically established by a teacher, school district or other organization that serves multiple eligible students. It is primarily a proxy membership in which a “sponsor” downloads materials on behalf of one or more students. Teachers can download NIMAS files for their students.
An individual membership, on the other hand, is a single user membership in which the user must manage his or her own account including downloading materials as required. Students will not have access to NIMAS files with an individual membership.

11. Using an Organizational Membership
To obtain a Bookshare membership for an eligible student, first determine whether or not your school district or organization has already established an organizational membership. If so, simply contact the membership administrator (“Primary Contact”) and request that your student’s name be added to the membership. If you are not already, be sure to request that your name be added to the membership as a “Sponsor” so that you will have access to the account and be able to download materials on behalf of your student.

12. Using an Organizational Membership (continued)
Within a day or so of being added as a sponsor, you will receive an from Bookshare with instructions for logging on to the site and establishing your account and password. When you have completed this process, you will be able to use the site and download materials for your student(s).
The names of your student(s) will appear in the organizational membership list as soon as they are added by the primary contact.
If your district or organization does not already have an organizational membership you may want to consider creating one.
This video explains how a school can apply for an organizational membership.

13. Using an Individual Membership
If you have students who would benefit from managing their own membership and downloading materials for themselves, you can request that they be given an individual membership. Students can have an organizational and individual membership.
Your organizational membership administrator will request this and the individual membership will be created. This will require that the student and/or his or her parents complete and return some additional paperwork, but this is a quick and easy process.
This short video explains how to sign up students for an individual account when they have an existing organizational membership.

14. How to Download Materials from Bookshare
Once you have established your “sponsor” membership and added a student’s name to the organizational membership list, you can begin downloading materials. To do this, log into your account using your username and password. You will be presented with a screen which contains, among other things, a search box and a “browse” button. Use the search box to search for a specific title, author, subject, etc. Use the “browse” button to look through all of the available titles. Remember that, unless they have been previously requested through FIMC-VI, NIMAS materials will not appear in the search results or browse lists.
Here is a short video on how to locate and request books.
Note: This information is accurate as of this writing, but, as Bookshare continues to revise and update its website, it may no longer precisely reflect the procedures described.

15. How to Download Materials from Bookshare (continued)
Any title appearing in the search results or browse list should have an associated “Download” button. Once you have selected a title to download, simply activate the “Download” button associated with that title.
You will next be presented with a screen which allows you to choose the student for whom you are downloading the book. If your organizational membership list is long, you may wish to use the provided search box to quickly find the appropriate name or you can simply scroll through the list until you find the name. Once you have found it, check the associated check box to select it.

16. How to Download Materials from Bookshare (continued)
You must then select one of the available download formats, e.g., audio, DAISY text, etc. When you have done so, simply activate the “Download Books” button.
A screen will appear requesting that you confirm your selection and recipient list. If all of the displayed information is correct, activate the “Download” button, otherwise edit the information as required.
 Here is a short video on how to download books when using an organizational account:

17. How to Download Materials from Bookshare (continued)
Next, you will be presented with your “My Bookshare” screen which, among other things, displays a chronological listing of your download history. If this is the first time you have attempted to download a book, there will be only one entry in the list. At the end of the entry, the “Status” of your download is listed. There are four possible results that can be displayed here. They are as follows:
Read Now: The book is available for reading online using the Bookshare Web Reader.
In Progress: Your request is being processed by Bookshare.
Available: Your book is ready for download.
Downloaded: You have already downloaded your book.
Note: the Bookshare Web Reader is a topic beyond the scope of this module since it has nothing to do with use of the Book Port.

18. How to Download Materials from Bookshare (continued)
If your request is “In Progress,” it usually means that you have selected a download format such as audio, DAISY audio or Braille ready format that must be processed by Bookshare before it can be made available for download. This can take from a few minutes to a day or more. You will receive an when the materials are “Available.” If your request is “Available,” it is ready for download. In this case, simply activate the “Available” button and follow the prompts presented by your web browser to download and save the file. The resulting file will be a ZIP archive which must be “unzipped” before use.

19. How to Download Materials from Bookshare (continued)
If the status of your request is “Downloaded,” you have already accessed or downloaded the materials. Activating the “Downloaded” button will allow you to download the materials again. Simply follow the instructions above to complete this process.
At this point, you should have been able to successfully download a book from Bookshare. If necessary, review Module One, Unit Four, “Transferring Files,” of this training series for details of how to unarchive the files and transfer them to the Book Port in preparation for reading.

20. Activity One: Downloading materials as a sponsor
*If you have an eligible student, e.g., one with a proven print disability, and your school district or organization has already established an organizational membership with Bookshare, perform the following activity to familiarize yourself with the Bookshare website and the procedures required to search for and download materials for your student(s). If you do not currently have an eligible student and/or your school district or organization does not have an organizational membership, proceed to Activity Two.
Note: The following instructions are accurate as of this writing, but, as Bookshare continues to revise and update their website, they may no longer precisely reflect the procedures described.

21. Downloading Materials as a Sponsor
Contact your organizational membership’s “primary contact” and request that your student’s name be added to the membership.
Request that your “primary contact” add your name to the membership as a “sponsor.” Be sure to provide him or her with a valid address.
You will receive an from Bookshare. Follow the instructions therein to establish your membership log in and password.
Log into Bookshare.org using your newly-created credentials.
Browse the collection or use the provided search box to find a book or document to download. Activate the “Download” button associated with the title to begin the process.
On the following screen, select your student’s name from the membership list by checking (clicking) the associated check box. If the membership list is long, you may wish to use the provided search box to quickly locate the name.

22. Downloading Materials as a Sponsor Continued
Select the file format you would prefer, e.g., DAISY text, audio, .BRF, etc., using the provided combo box, and activate the “Download Books” button.
A confirmation screen will appear. Review the presented information and edit it if required. Then activate the “Download” button.
Next, you will be presented with your “My Bookshare” screen which, among other things, displays a chronological listing of your download history. If this is the first time you have attempted to download a book, there will be only one entry in the list. Check the “Status” of your request, which should be near the bottom of the entry. If the status is “Available,” activate the “Available” button and follow your web browser’s prompts for downloading and saving the file. If the status is “In Progress,” you must wait until your request is available. This can take from a few minutes to a day or more. In this case, you will receive an alerting you when your title is available.

23. Downloading Materials as a Sponsor Continued
If your request is “In Progress,” you may log out of your Bookshare account and wait until you receive the alerting you that your request is available.
When you receive the alert from Bookshare, use the provided links to quickly return to your download history page. Alternatively, log on in the usual way and activate the “My Bookshare” button to accomplish the same thing. The status of your request will now be “Available.” Follow the instructions in step 9 above to download your book.
Using the procedure appropriate for your computer and operating system, unarchive (unzip) your downloaded book. Use one of the methods described in Unit Four of Module One of this training series to transfer the resulting files to the Book Port. Locate and select the title on the Book Port and begin playback to verify that the book was successfully transferred.

24. Activity Two: Downloading materials using the “organizational Demo” Account
*If you currently do not serve a student eligible for a Bookshare membership and/or your school district or organization has not established an organizational membership with Bookshare, perform the following activity to familiarize yourself with the Bookshare website and the procedures required to search for and download materials.

25. Downloading Materials Using the “Organizational Demo” Account (continued)
Open your browser and go to the link On this page is a link titled “Organizational Demo Account (Word).” Activate this link and follow your browser’s prompts to download the resulting file. This Microsoft Word document contains detailed instructions on how to access and use the organizational demo account for Bookshare, including the username and password. You will need to follow the directions in this Word document regarding registering a demo student to be able to download a book.
Log into Bookshare.org using the provided credentials. At this writing, the user name is and the password is “demo480” (do not include the quotation marks.) (Note that this information is subject to change at any time, so downloading the current instructions as detailed in step one above is highly recommended.)

26. Downloading Materials Using the “Organizational Demo” Account (continued)
Browse the limited selection of documents available through this account and select one to download. Activate the “Download” button associated with the title to begin the process.
On the following screen, select a random student’s name from the membership list by checking (clicking) the associated check box.
Select the file format you would prefer, e.g., DAISY text, audio, .BRF, etc., using the provided combo box, and activate the “Download Books” button.
A confirmation screen will appear. Review the displayed information and edit it if required. Then activate the “Download” button.

27. Downloading Materials Using the “Organizational Demo” Account (continued)
Next, you will be presented with the “My Bookshare” screen which, among other things, displays a chronological listing of download history for this account. Locate the document you have chosen to download which should be at the top of the list and check the “Status” of your request, which should be near the end of the entry. The status should be “Available.” Activate the “Available” button and follow your web browser’s prompts for downloading and saving the file.
Using the procedure appropriate for your computer and operating system, unarchive (unzip) your downloaded book. Use one of the methods described in Unit Four of Module One of this training series to transfer the resulting files to the Book Port. Locate and select the title on the Book Port and begin playback to verify that the book was successfully transferred.

28. Individual Student Accounts
Although individual student accounts were not thoroughly discussed in this unit, you can easily explore the features and functionality of an individual account by logging onto the internet and going to the link On this page is a link titled “Individual Demo Account (Word).” Activate this link and follow your browser’s prompts to download the resulting file. This Microsoft Word document contains detailed instructions on how to access and use the individual demo account for Bookshare, including the username and password.
As with the organizational demo account, this account provides a very limited selection of documents to download, but will allow you to familiarize yourself with the document-selection process and download procedures for individual users. These procedures are actually easier than those required of a Sponsor downloading materials on behalf of a student or students.

29. Summary
In this unit you have explored Bookshare.org, an extremely valuable online resource for both educational and recreational reading materials for individuals with print disabilities. You have learned how to set up a sponsored and/or individual Bookshare account for an eligible student and how to use that account to download materials. You have learned about the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC), how to order materials from this resource and retrieve them through the use of Bookshare. Finally, activities have provided practical experience in downloading materials from Bookshare and transferring them to the Book Port.

30. Following Successful Completion of this unit, you should be able to:
Describe the services provided by Bookshare.org.
Describe the file formats in which Bookshare materials can be downloaded.
Describe, in general terms, the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) and the purpose of the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC).
Describe the procedure for ordering and retrieving materials from NIMAC.
Define “Primary Contact” and “Sponsor” as used by Bookshare.
Describe the differences and similarities between an individual and organizational Bookshare account.
Describe the procedure for downloading materials from Bookshare.

31. To learn more and remain current …
Visit the following link: