Universities, further and higher education stories

University of Worcester

“What is really good to see is the number of publishers now working directly with RNIB Bookshare.”

Library Services at the University of Worcester have been using RNIB Bookshare for four years, since 2014, and have found it a huge help. They joined the service before many other further higher educational establishments, and have seen how our catalogue of resources has grown to meet the needs of their print disabled students.

“We can now aim to source many more texts for our students as RNIB Bookshare coverage is improving year-on-year, the process is really quick and simple, and the request system for texts not already on the site is so much easier than direct approaches to publishers.”

A key area that RNIB Bookshare is able to support Di and her colleagues with is through navigating and meeting the legal requirements of the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Disability) Regulations 2014.

“Where texts are sourced from RNIB Bookshare all legal requirements are covered consistently, doing away with the many and varied forms of publisher agreement conditions, so less work for both the publisher and the recipient.”

RNIB Bookshare has been able to streamline the process for many schools and universities in obtaining accessible electronic files directly from publishers, saving both sides effort, resources and cost.

“What is really good to see is the number of publishers now working directly with RNIB Bookshare (and the work being done to increase those numbers). Such publishers reduce the number of individual requests they have to process, help those of us who work to obtain alternative formats…”

Most importantly, RNIB Bookshare is supporting educational organisations to help print disabled learners access the educational resources they need.

“… and contribute to making a more level playing-field for print-disabled students.”

Leeds Beckett University

“With RNIB Bookshare we have peace of mind that the files are fully accessible and copyright compliant, and we would recommend all academic publishers consider adding their titles to the collection.”  

If you have a print disability and are studying at LeedsBeckett University, you can arrange to see the Learning Support Officer. They provide assistance with assistive software, using the library services and equipment, researching a topic including journals and obtaining items in accessible formats. They have been sourcing resources from RNIB Bookshare since February 2016.

They have a large and active Alt Formats Service currently providing accessible formats to over 40 print disabled students with a wide range of needs and support requirements.

“RNIB Bookshare is an invaluable addition to the alternative formats provision at our University.”

 Rachel told us that using RNIB Bookshare is a great way of supporting both staff and students;

“We have long recognised RNIB Bookshare’s potential to streamline our workflow and now that most of the larger publishers have provided their academic titles we are able to obtain the majority of titles quickly and with a minimum of administration.”

 “The student experience is much improved when they can access their reading within the same timeframe as their peers.”

 It’s also a benefit to publishers

“RNIB Bookshare acts as a single point of contact eliminating the requirement to contact multiple publishers (over and over again) and complete individual licences for every title, the terms and conditions of which vary from publisher to publisher. This reduces the amount of work for ourselves, and also for those publishers who sign up to RNIB Bookshare.”

“The University is more likely to recommend adding titles from those publishers who are working with RNIB Bookshare to module reading lists.”

University of Huddersfield

I would like to say how valuable RNIB Bookshare has been to me and the students I support just in the last month. (Katherine, Library Disability Support Advisor)

The staff in Computing and Library Services at Huddersfield University support students with a print disability in obtaining their essential course reading in accessible electronic formats. One of the ways they do so is using RNIB Bookshare.

They have been using the service since March 2016, and are now looking to contribute their resources to share with others too.

Katherine works as a Disability Support Librarian, and has used RNIB Bookshare in a previous role. On taking up a this role, she found that the demand for alternative versions of textbooks was much higher.

“One PHD student sent me an email in my first week, with requests for over 50 books! You can imagine how long that would have taken, had we had to scan every item individually, or even go through the process of contacting publishers individually.”

Equality of access to course resources is important;

“It has been incredibly helpful to be able to log onto RNIB Bookshare and download many of these titles immediately. The students then get almost the equivalent experience that non-disabled students have when they come to the library and choose a book off the shelf.”

Katherine’s message to publishers;

“If publishers could hear the stories of frustration I hear from some students, they might be more aware of the really incredible value that RNIB Bookshare provides.”