Request a book
If we’re missing a title you need, don't worry—requesting a book on RNIB Bookshare is straightforward! Follow these simple steps we've outlined below. If you're a student needing a book, ask your teacher, main contact, or librarian for help in requesting the title you need.
Whilst we will try to process your book request as quickly as possible, as we are a small staff team, please allow 2-3 working days for us to deal with your request.
Peak request times
September-October, January and June- July are peak request times. We will deal with your requests as quickly as we can, however as we receive more requests at these times, please try to request titles giving us as much time as possible.
New! Penguin Random House (PRH) titles
All PRH book requests will now be placed in a list, held by RNIB Bookshare and sent to the publisher at the end of each calendar month to be fulfilled as soon as possible after this date. This is a new process (March 2023), as advised by the publisher and we are not able to process PRH book requests outside of these timescales.
To clarify, this means if you send us your request at the beginning or middle of a month, it will be held by us and sent as part of a single list of all PRH titles requested in the month, and sent to PRH on 30/31 of that month.
Penguin Random House is committed to working with RNIB Bookshare to provide their titles, and they are the largest publisher in the world, with the largest number of publisher imprints and so will have a large archive of titles to manage.
Updated: 14 April 2023
Quick Book Request Links
Quick and easy book requests
1. Check the title is not already available to download.
Search the site, and here is how to search the site. Remember to search by ISBN (no spaces or hyphens).
2. Do you need to contact the publisher directly?
Check our list of publishers who request that you contact them and our publishers who we have attempted to contact. Some publishers ask that you contact them directly and we have provided contact details where available.
3. Does the publisher work with RNIB Bookshare?
Check our list of publishers who work with us. We will also approach new publishers too. If you can't see them on either list, we are happy to try contacting them.
4. How old is the title you need?
Check publisher file availability dates. Important! We cannot process titles dating from 2000 or earlier, as they don't usually have electronic files of a title this old.
5. The title is on RNIB Bookshare, but not in the format I want
Unfortunately publishers are under no obligation to provide us with electronic copies of their titles, and so we cannot guarantee that we will always be able to get a title in a learners ideal format. As this title is already available on our site, the publisher has provided your requested book in the accessible formats they are already able to.
Your options are to read it in a different file format, such as using Dolphin EasyReader reading app, or convert it into a different file format, with free tools that you can download:
- Calibre. This is free software that will convert an EPUB file into many other format types including Word and PDF. We often use this software at RNIB Bookshare.
- Adobe Acrobat DC . Allows you to reliably convert PDF files into other formats such as Word. This software has a cost.
If you're a student needing a book, ask your teacher, main contact, or librarian for help in requesting the title you need.
Complete our Book Request Form. Provide the title and ISBN. Save us time and tell us the publisher too. We'll contact you if there is anything else we need. We will try to process your book request as quickly as possible, as a small staff team, please allow 2-3 working days for us to deal with your request.
Bulk requests: If you need to request a number of titles (more than 30) for the same publisher, please contact us and we will provide you with a more streamlined process, that will make it easier for you, us and the publisher.
7. Track your book request
Keep track of your book requests, we'll email you once it's ready to download. Quote the case number if you need to contact us about a request. Please check the site regularly for the title you have requested.
Turn-around times: We appreciate that it can be difficult, but we do recommend requesting titles as far in advance as possible. Turn-around times from publishers can be as little as 24 hours or up to 10 weeks. At peak times of year the turn-around times can increase. We will chase publishers for outstanding requests regularly.
8. Finally, download it!
How to download your book. Checkour Copyright downloading guidance about using and storing books.