Open Library

I came across an interesting website the other day called Open Library which aims to publish one web page for every book. An open source project, so far they have amassed over 20 million records and with contributions from libraries and individuals around the world and the collection is growing.

I was intrigued by their blog post Over 1 Million Digital Books Now Available Free to the Print-Disabled and read more. They've thoroughly tested their website and ensured it's accessible, but more importantly are excited about the accessible books.

They have an Accessible book subject page where you can search through titles, I took at look at their copies of Alice In Wonderland - they have over 615 editions! When I initially clicked on 'Read online' it took me to a non-English version of the book so I then had to look at the edition list. Many editions are available in a text only or PDF (though not marked up) format. However, many are downloadable DAISY files. DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) is a talking book format for people who wish to hear and navigate through text. Unlike audio books, users can navigate through chapters or books and turn back or forwards a page. This resource could be immensely useful for learners I work with who are print-disabled due to dyslexia or are otherwise visually impaired.

Some of the books available in DAISY format are only available to US residents, but so far my searches have shown that other editions of a title freely exist to all users. Also I did find the site a little tricky to navigate at times as their search parameters aren't specific enough; I couldn't for example search for Alice in Wonderland by latest edition with PDF. I can imagine I would first have to show a learner how to use the website.

DAISY was a new concept for me, they helpfully linked to a great introduction video where users explained its benefits:



P.S. First embedded video on blog! Shame that a video about accessibility doesn't include subtitles.

P.P.S. I just hacked this blog's template so the video would fit in the width of the main text. To be honest, I don't know too much about CSS so it was a bit of a guess, but it seems to have worked!