Projects & Experiments

Fall 1995

National Library Service for the 
Blind and Physically Handicapped

The Library of Congress

Another source for books: electronic text

Access to reading material in printed form is a fundamental part of our
society. From the dawn of the written word to just a little more than two
hundred years ago, blind people were barred from the pleasures of reading
and the practicality of using written materials. Such a limitation
inevitably meant that personal, educational, and vocational advancement
were, for the most part, beyond the realm of possibility.
     From the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, blind people
began to make great strides with efforts toward literacy--first with the
advent of braille and much later with the introduction of audio recordings
that could be used to play back reading material.
     With the rapid growth of computer technology, yet another method for
obtaining books, magazines, and newspapers has become possible. This issue
of _Projects & Experiments_ explores electronic texts--what they are, in
what formats they are available, and how blind people access them.
                               ###

All those books . . .

The prevalence of electronic texts provides blind persons with greatly
expanded access to the printed word. Only a small portion of print materials
that are published each year are produced in recorded or braille formats by
NLS and other agencies. Electronic text offers blind computer users the
opportunity to read many other materials now being provided by nonprofit and
commercial sources.
     There are thousands of books and other materials available as
electronic text. Electronic text encompasses many subject areas, epochs,
styles of writing, and languages. The offerings range from classic works
by authors such as Benjamin Franklin, C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain, and Edgar
Allan Poe to modern texts on using specific types of computer software or
searching for information through the Internet. Important documents in
America's history, like the Constitution, are available, as are the
complete works of Shakespeare and the books of the Bible. 
     Many reference works, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and
almanacs, have also been converted to electronic-text format. The number of
magazines, journals, and newspapers available in computerized form increases
daily.

What is electronic text?
Electronic text refers to the contents of books, magazines, newspapers,
journals, and other documents held in a format that people can read by using
computer equipment. In technical terms, electronic text is created by
converting the text of the printed page from analog form to digital form or
by putting material directly into a computer. This digital information is
then stored in a computer or on computer-readable media and later converted
into visual, tactile, or audible output that blind and visually impaired
persons can read.

How it's done
The first step in the process of creating electronic text is capturing the
letters and words of print material for entry into a computer's memory. A
simple way to accomplish this is by typing the text into a computer using a
keyboard. For relatively short texts, such as historical documents like the
Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta, this method is ideal, since
the text can be typed and then saved on a computer diskette. Larger texts,
of course, take much more time and labor to type, so they may not be
suitable for this method.
     For larger printed publications, an electronic scanner may be more
practical for converting the text. An electronic scanner captures an image
of the printed page and creates an electronic picture similar to a
photograph or photocopy. The computer can save the picture but cannot
immediately recognize its contents. The next step is for the computer to
"read" the picture using optical character recognition (OCR) software. The
OCR software converts the text in the image into digital format.
     Many publications already exist in digital form as a routine part of
the publishing process, since computer files are used in the typesetting and
printing of most books and magazines. These computer files can easily be
used to create electronic text.
     All of these methods create digital information that is stored in
computer-readable files. These files contain the digital representation of
letters and words. To a computer, words, letters, and other symbols are all
translated into binary digits, or bits, the fundamental elements of a
computer's operations. The computer reads each operation as yes or no; go or
no go.
     Because all computers operate on this same basic principle, digital
information can be easily transferred from one machine to another. This
transfer of information takes place through a variety of stages, and
ultimately the material is delivered to the user through a medium such as
CD-ROM, floppy diskette, or an electronic connection. Thus, a text stored in
digital form can be read by a sighted person using a color monitor or a
blind person using a braille display, magnification system, or speech output
device.
     Generally, electronic texts are made available in a simple,
easy-to-use "language." This format, known as the American Standard Code for
Information Interchange (ASCII), contains the basic alphabetic and numeric
characters, plus some symbols. Publishing codes that indicate typefaces,
font sizes, italics, bold, and underlining are not a part of ASCII.
Providing electronic text in ASCII, or "plain vanilla," format ensures that
readability is not affected by the type of hardware or software a reader
uses or by the rapid changes in computer technology that often make hardware
and software obsolete. Almost all computers are capable of handling ASCII
text. For the blind reader, this "plain vanilla" format also means that
electronic texts are fully accessible using speech, large-type, or braille
adaptive equipment.

How is electronic text available?
Electronic text is made available to readers in a variety of ways. Two of
the most popular delivery methods are online and CD-ROM products. Online
services are resources that users generally connect to through a
communication device such as a modem. These resources have become popular
over the past few years. The number of these services grows with the
worldwide interest in and use of the Internet, an interconnection of
thousands of computer networks. The myriad service providers and networks
makes access possible for almost any computer user.
     Some online electronic texts, especially magazines and newspapers, are
available from services such as CompuServe, GEnie, and others. These
services vary considerably in their accessibility to adaptive equipment. The
providers charge a monthly fee for users to connect to the service and often
charge additional fees for specific materials. Popular weekly magazines such
as _Time, Newsweek,_ and _Sports Illustrated_ are available through these
commercial providers.
     Other electronic-text collections are contained in part of nonprofit
online services such as Project Gutenberg, the Online Book Initiative, and
Wiretap. These services offer many public-domain books that can be accessed
without additional cost by Internet users.
--George Thuronyi
(photo caption: Judy Dixon, consumer relations officer, describes herself as
"information obsessed." Here she hunts for a word in the Oxford English
Dictionary, CD-ROM version, using the braille output device on her NLS
computer. Readers who prefer speech output can also use the many references
available in electronic formats.)
                               ###

About the Internet...

What it is
The Internet is a vast, worldwide network of interconnected computers. Born
about twenty-five years ago as an experimental military tool, the Internet
has grown into a connection of commercial, educational, and government
computers providing a vast array of services and products. One of the
overall principles of the Internet that has made it so popular is its
ability to allow all computers connected to it to communicate with one
another.
     Computers come in many sizes and shapes, and many of them speak
different operating "languages." The Internet was designed to break down
these barriers and allow all computers connected to it to communicate using
the same "protocol," or set of instructions.

How to connect to it
There are many ways in which people access the Internet. A common connection
method is through an Internet-access provider. An individual computer user
whose computer has a communication device called a modem can dial in to an
access provider using a standard phone line. Once connected, the user can
reach various services through the Internet. Some providers charge for
online time or by the amount of information gathered; others provide free or
low-cost, flat-rate services. Other people connect to the Internet through
organizations like universities, public libraries, or government agencies
that provide free public access.
     The connection method used dictates, to some extent, the ways in which
a user can communicate and gather information through the Internet. Some
connections provide the latest, most sophisticated searching tools and
interfaces, but many users are limited to more basic avenues of access.
                               ###

Getting started

To read material in electronic form, a person with a disability will need a
computer equipped with all the usual hardware and software that anyone would
need to use floppy disks, CD-ROMs, or online services. This would include
the appropriate hard and floppy disk drives for disk usage, a CD-ROM drive
for CD-ROM usage, and a modem or network connection for online activities.
In addition, a person with a disability usually needs some type of interface
hardware. This adaptive equipment can take many forms depending on the
severity of the individual's impairment and the extent of the individual's
skills.
     Generally, however, interface with a computer system for a person who
is visually impaired is via output devices for braille, synthetic speech, or
large print. If a refreshable braille display or speech synthesizer is used
for readout, accompanying screen-reading software is also required. Numerous
software and hardware options are available for large-print screen readout.
     A person who is motor impaired or paralyzed lacks the hand dexterity
to manipulate switches and a keyboard. A computer can be operated with a
mouth stick or head-mounted switches by individuals with good control of
their neck and head muscles or with eye movement for those with more
profound disabilities. Assistive devices include keyboard adaptation,
keyboard emulators that display the image of a keyboard on the screen,
voice-recognition systems, single-switch arrays, head-pointing and
eyegaze-detection devices, and pointing-device alternatives such as a
joystick or headmouse.
     The cost of a computer varies greatly depending on the type of
equipment chosen. Hardware for synthetic speech output can range from a few
hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the quality of speech and
the extent of user refinements. The cost of braille output is higher,
starting at several thousand dollars. Screen magnification options also vary
greatly in price depending again on degree of magnification desired and
amount of customization possible, but the range is generally from a few
hundred to more than two thousand dollars.
     More information on getting started with adaptive computer equipment
can be obtained from the following sources:

AFB Technology Center
American Foundation for the Blind
11 Penn Plaza
Suite 300
New York, NY 10001
(212) 502-7642

International Braille and Technology
Center for the Blind
National Federation of the Blind
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 659-9314

Reference Section
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542
(202) 707-9275

Trace Research and Development Center
University of Wisconsin
1500 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53705
(608) 262-6966
                               ###

A tool for daily life

The somewhat exalted concept of the "information superhighway" gives rise to
the notion of vast academic depths to be explored. But many people use
electronic books and other materials in everyday life--to get access to
information related to recreation, or hobbies, or just things that interest
them. This article discusses possibilities for people who like to cook. But
the concept applies just as well to gardening, birdwatching, woodworking,
jazz, or any other recreational pursuit a person wants to read more about.

Traditional sources
Without a computer, where does a blind person who likes to cook obtain
recipes or other information about cooking?
     As of this writing, there are 424 cookbooks, or books about cooking or
food, in the NLS _Union Catalog._ Of these, 258 are in audio format and 164
are in braille, with some overlap of titles across formats. Compare that to
the 7,400 books on cooking in the Library of Congress catalog of print books
or the 6,800 cookbooks in the current _Books in Print_ and the number in
special formats seems very limited. There are some commercial audio
cookbooks available now, but they are even more limited in number. As an
alternative, a blind person might listen to, or even tape, the television
cooking shows and copy down recipes, but that medium is visually oriented,
and there are usually only one or two recipes per show.
     Consider also how someone uses audio and braille cookbooks. First,
they are usually borrowed, so the right recipe is not necessarily available
when you want it. And even for those who own cookbooks, it is difficult to
make notes, such as changing measurements or substituting ingredients. One -
solution is to copy every recipe you might want to use into braille or onto
audio tape and make notes at the time you make the copy, but this practice
is time-consuming and limited as well.

Computer technology
What does computer technology do for you?
     First, it enormously increases the amount of information available.
More and more, cookbooks are coming out on CD-ROM. Databases available over
the Internet or on other online services contain many recipes that are
published in printed cookbooks or submitted by other online users. There are
also a number of computer software programs for managing your own cookbooks,
menus, or diets; and these come packaged with recipes. In addition, the
Internet and online services have food forums where like-minded people
discuss cooking and other food issues in a manner similar to that of cooking
newsletters.
     Second, on a personal computer at home, the cookbooks in the computer
or on CD-ROM or even accessible online are just like cookbooks on your
shelf--they are accessible all the time.
     Third, you can easily make copies of the recipes, annotate them at any
time, and keep them as your own collection.
     The fact that books are available on the computer means that they are
obtainable by anyone with appropriate equipment. A blind person who wishes
to read the books must learn to use the computer and the adaptive devices
for braille or speech output; but once that is learned, every recipe that is
available to the sighted computer user is available to the blind user and
does not have to be specially converted to braille or audio by a sighted
person.

Books on CD-ROM
CD-ROM is becoming a significant medium of publication, especially for
reference works such as cookbooks, which are intended for selective rather
than sequential reading. CD-ROM is a large-volume medium, and one disk can
contain many cookbooks. A CD-ROM may be thought of as a cookbook library,
with each cookbook being organized and edited by a single editor. Each
cookbook will generally use a consistent set of measures and terminology for
its recipes and will often have a suborganization such as appetizers, soups,
fish, and the like.
     CD-ROM is a read-only medium, so you can read the recipes, but you
cannot make notes in the book. However, you can usually print out a recipe
or save it in a file, similar to making a copy for your own binder or recipe
box. Most CD-ROMs will allow you to search through an index for recipe
titles and or words from the recipes. Even with the least sophisticated
indexing, the user can search by index term as in a printed cookbook, a
function not usually available in audio books. In fact, the searching with
index terms goes well beyond what can be done in a printed book and is one
of the reasons sighted people would use a CD-ROM version of a cookbook
rather than the printed copy.
     CD-ROM cookbooks are generally designed for personal use and are
reasonably priced, in the $25-$75 range, about the same as hardcover
cookbooks. As with printed cookbooks, the cook must review and be careful to
select CD-ROM cookbooks with recipes at the right cooking level and fitting
the tastes of the intended diners.

Online cookbooks
If CD-ROM is becoming a significant source of publication, online services
are a gusher of information on all topics. And true to the analogy of an oil
well gusher, the online services both have a wealth of information and can
be a real mess. The recent explosion of the Internet has caused some of the
chaos, but the very nature of an online publication can cause problems. A
CD-ROM, like a printed book or magazine issue, is fixed at the time of
production and never changes. An online cookbook is likely to be updated
periodically or on an ongoing basis. However, an online cookbook still has
the basic quality of a cookbook, that of being an organized set of
information about cooking.
     There are a number of commercial online services such as CompuServe
and GEnie for which the user pays a fee and has access to information on the
service. There is also the Internet, which is generally available at very
low cost. The commercial online services usually provide access to the
Internet as well as to their own databases of information, and they are a
path often used by individuals to obtain information from home.
     Some information is available through fee-based services. These often
contain commercially published books and magazines. The books tend to be
highly edited with well-tested recipes organized into categories and indexed
by a consistent set of index terms. It is here that you would expect to find
collections by famous cookbook authors or copies of the cooking magazines
found on the newsstand.
     Free services run more toward recipe collections that are also
distributed free in printed form, such as Department of Agriculture
collections of fat-free recipes, or to collections compiled from
special-interest-group submissions. Online users with a common interest such
as cooking form special interest groups (SIGs). Users communicate through
online bulletin boards, forums, and newsgroups that are simply databases to
which the members may send messages.
     The collections produced by organizations may have some level of
editing and subject organization and be somewhat more coherent as cookbooks
than the SIG databases, which have minimal organization and lack the
consistency of terminology that one usually finds in a commercially produced
cookbook.
     Online cookbooks are like reference books, with indexes to look up
recipes in the whole collection as needed or at leisure. A SIG database is
more like a newspaper. The database is designed so that one may check it
periodically and read the most recent submissions. As with the food section
of a newspaper, one might scan it weekly and pick out those recipes of
interest. Depending on the design of the SIG, either you must read the new
information within a specific time or you may have everything saved until
you read it. That is equivalent to deciding to throw out the papers weekly,
read or not, versus saving all unread newspapers. SIGs are often the most
popular of the cookbook formats for the truly avid, computer-literate cook.
One is able to scan all the latest information and even participate by
submitting recipes or comments.
     The listserv is akin to a SIG, but instead of the messages being
posted on the SIG computer where you go look for them, they are sent to the
member's electronic mailbox. With a listserv, you must have an electronic
mailbox (e-mail). Belonging to a listserv is like subscribing to a cooking
magazine and suddenly finding your mailbox filling up with all sorts of mail
related to cooking. Happily, these are usually recipes you at least want to
see, and you can easily cancel yourself from the list.

Recipe software systems
The final source of recipes in electronic form is computer recipe software
systems. They are purchased like any other software and reside on your local
computer. A recipe system has one basic feature common to any printed
cookbook that is not present in the CD-ROM or online cookbook: you can write
in it. You can make notes on the recipes, change ingredients, note when you
made the dish and any problems you had.
     In addition, most recipe software systems come with a set of recipes.
Many also allow you to purchase extra sets of recipes or subscribe to a
periodic distribution. Some are simply add-ons to mainstream cooking
magazines that distribute their recipes for use in the systems. You can save
all the recipes and then locate them through searching, rather than poring
over numerous old copies of the magazines.
     The recipe software systems allow you to enter your own recipes and
copy recipes into them from other systems. In that sense, they are like the
looseleaf-format recipe books one can buy in printed form. They also may
have a variety of other features such as automatically adjusting
measurements when you change the number of servings or providing nutritional
analyses of recipes, including those you've input yourself, or allowing you
to create menus or diets based on target levels of calorie consumption.
These fancier features go well beyond basic reading functions.
--Robert McDermott
                               ###

Reference materials

Access to reference works has long presented difficulties for visually
handicapped readers. Reference sources must be current to be relevant, but
the time required to produce and distribute materials in special format
detracts from the possibility of timeliness and regular updates. For
example, the _World Book Encyclopedia_ was published in braille in 1959 and
was recorded in 1980; obviously neither of these versions is current.
     Reference works in certain areas, especially medicine, science, and
technology, have never been available in braille or on cassette, largely
because the information becomes outdated rapidly. In addition, a multivolume
reference work in print would occupy a wall of shelves when transcribed into
braille, and on cassette separate entries may be difficult to find even with
tone or voice indexing.
     These problems are minimized or eliminated with computerized or
electronic text. Diskettes and CD-ROM drives can store large amounts of
material in a small space, and they offer rapid search-and-retrieval
capabilities. Some reference works even contain added, interactive features
that give these electronic texts some advantages over the print versions. An
electronic-text encyclopedia, for example, might allow the reader to search
for information by entering a keyword on the subject of interest. The user
then has the opportunity to choose from a list of articles that contain the
search word within the text. After selecting the article, the reader may be
presented with text accompanied by an audio recording of a speech or a music
selection. Other entries may give the reader the opportunity to take an
interactive quiz after reading an article.
     Using electronic text gives persons with visual impairments the
ability to browse, a process that sighted people have always taken for
granted.
     Thousands of CD-ROM database products are available commercially, and
there are even CD-ROM directories that inform users about the sources that
are available on CD-ROM.
     U.S. government publications on CD-ROM include the _Congressional
Record, Federal Register, U.S. Code, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations,_ and
the _Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications._ Other reference works
on CD-ROM include almanacs, encyclopedias, biographical directories,
telephone books, and indexes and abstracts such as _Applied Science and
Technology, Biography Index, Books in Print, Business Periodicals Index,_
and _Social Sciences Index._
--Carol Strauss
(photo caption: Deborah Brown, quality assurance specialist, uses a volume
of _Webster's Geographical Dictionary,_ flanked by more of the forty-three
braille volumes comprising this work. Photo by Jim Higgins.)
                               ###

Library services and electronic documents

Most of the articles in this issue of _Projects & Experiments_ deal with
materials and services individuals can obtain and use at home. Although
costs seem to be coming down all the time, the hardware and software can be
expensive, and the need for adaptive equipment adds considerably to the
investment. Not everyone can afford a computer for personal use. Not
everyone would want one; some people have only occasional need for such
materials and information. Others may want to get comfortable with using
such devices before investing so much in them.
     Some public and NLS network libraries are beginning to provide
significant services in this area, just as they provide books on loan and
other types of facilities for research. Access to many full-text items may,
however, involve physically going to the library because of copyright and
licensing agreements that restrict online access. But when specific
information is sought, such as that found in an encyclopedia, more and more
libraries are able to provide the material in formats accessible to blind
and physically handicapped patrons.
     The projects outlined below present a sampling of a continuum of
services. Some are analogous to providing print reference tools to patrons,
while others have recreated the role of the library as a virtual presence on
the Internet.

At network libraries
The Washington regional library has set up a workstation with adaptive
devices to provide access to available CD-ROM databases. Titles include
Abledata, a thesaurus, an almanac, several dictionaries and encyclopedias,
and other reference tools as well as a collection of recipes. Jan Ames,
regional librarian, reports that not only do the CD-ROM versions provide
additional access, but for many titles they are the _only_ way to provide
access for blind and visually impaired readers. She expects that while many
users need training and encouragement, students and future users will not
only want, but expect such services. The library has used federal and local
grant money to purchase the equipment and titles. A volunteer provides
training and assistance.
     Other libraries that have made CD-ROM texts available include the
regional libraries in Florida; Cleveland, Ohio; Wayne County, Michigan;
Iowa; and Indiana as well as subregionals at Rome and Augusta, Georgia;
Worcester, Massachusetts; Largo, Florida; and Marquette, Michigan.
     Services range from acceptance of phone requests for embossed
printouts from CD-ROMs to full on-site service including training sessions.
Collections start from as few as a couple of CD-ROMs to several dozen. At
present most of the titles are reference works, but collections of
out-of-copyright literary texts are also available at some sites.

Public libraries and text resources
The Montgomery County Public Library System in Maryland offers a variety of
full-text and partial-text resources to library users over the phone lines.
Users dialing in to the library's computer or using terminals within the
library can access a database that includes a full-text encyclopedia (the
Grolier's) and several magazine indexes. Many, although by no means all, of
the magazine articles that are indexed have their full text available online
as well. The library provides this service through a licensing arrangement
with the CARL corporation in Colorado, and access is limited to Montgomery
County residents.
     Similar services are available in other areas of the country.

Connections to the Internet
A third approach was undertaken by the University of Michigan, School of
Information and Library Studies. They have constructed the "Internet Public
Library," a site that provides access to Internet resources in a manner
similar to a library. Many of the resources are full text: dictionaries,
atlases, and other reference works. The resources were not necessarily
created or maintained by the school, but the site organizes the categories
of information and has pointers or gateways to the sites that do maintain
them. By giving access and organization to electronic texts, they have
managed to transfer traditional library functions from a specific "real
world" location to the Internet. The Internet address for this site is
http://ips.sil.umich.edu/index.text.html.
--Robert Axtell
(photo caption: Cleveland, Ohio, regional library assistants Irene Ozwald
and Alvin Davis explore titles in the CD-ROM database located in the patron
library. Photo by Paul S Studios, Inc.)
                               ###

Selected resources for full-text material

This list is a sampling of items available on floppy diskette, on CD-ROM,
and via the Internet. It is not meant to be comprehensive but to offer
starting places for the exploration of full-text books and periodicals in
electronic form. All items have been verified at the time of compiling, but
this area is changing so rapidly that some items may no longer be available.
However, new material appears frequently and will most likely be added by
one of the general sources listed here.

Books
---The following organizations make full-text books on floppy diskette
available for purchase.

American Printing House for the Blind
1839 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206
(502) 895-2405
(Text-2000 format)

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
20 Roszel Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
(609) 452-0606
(ASCII and BookManager formats)

---For those who do not have the capability or the time to retrieve
electronic texts from the Internet, the following organization makes texts
retrieved from the Internet available on computer diskette for purchase.

Please Copy This Disk
B&R Samizdat Express
P.O. Box 161
West Roxbury, MA 02132
(617) 469-2269

---The following publishers produce CD-ROM titles that contain large
collections of full-text books. Titles listed after each publisher are
available through computer stores and catalogs.

Bureau of Electronic Publishing
141 New Road
Parsippany, NJ 07054
(201) 808-2700

Great Literature
History of the World
Shakespeare on Disk
Sherlock Holmes on Disk
U.S. History on CD-ROM

CDRP Inc. (Chestnut CD-ROM)
101 Rogers Street, Suite 204
Cambridge, MA 02142
(617) 494-5330

Bibles and Religion
Complete Bookshop
Dictionaries and Languages

Walnut Creek CD-ROM
1547 Palos Verdes, Suite 260
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
(800) 786-9907

Gutenberg Disk

World Library
2809 Main Street
Irvine, CA 92714
800-443-0238

Electronic Home Library
Library of the Future

---The following Internet sites have large collections of full-text
public-domain books.

Alex: A Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the Internet (Oxford University)
gopher://gopher.rsl.ox.ac.uk:70/11/lib-corn/hunter

Electronic Text Center (University of Virginia)
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/etext/ETC.html

The English Server (Carnegie-Mellon University)
http://english-server.hss.cmu.edu

Eris Project (University of Vermont)
gopher://gopher.vt.edu:10010/10/33

Human-Languages Page (Willamette University; includes many bilingual
dictionaries and language tutorials)
http://www.willamette.edu/~tjones/Language-Page.html

Internet Book Information Center (University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill)
http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html

Modern English Collection (University of Virginia)
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng.browse.html

The Online Book Initiative
ftp://obi.std.com or gopher://gopher.std.com

The On-line Books Page (Carnegie-Mellon University)
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/books.html

Project Bartleby (Columbia University; includes the 1901 edition of
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)
http://www.columbia.edu/~svl2/

Project Gutenberg (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
http://jg.cso.uiuc.edu/pg/welcome.html

Project Libellus (University of Washington)
ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu:/pub/user-supported/libellus

The Tech Classics Archive (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Classics/

Wiretap Online Library
gopher://wiretap.spies.com/11/library

---The following sites contain information and full-text books by and about
specific authors.

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Sherlockian Holmepage (University of Waterloo)
http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~credmond/sh.html

Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology)
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html

House of Usher: Edgar Allan Poe Home Page
http://infoweb.magi.com/~forrest/index.html

Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis (Utah State University)
http://sleepy.usu.edu/~slq9v/cslewis/index.html

James Joyce (Temple University)
http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~callahan/joyce.html

Jane Austen (University of Texas)
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~churchh/janeinfo.html

The Mark Twain Library (University of Colorado)
http://hydor.colorado.edu/twain

---The following site contains full-text poems and information on other
poetry resources.

Electronic Poetry Center (State University of New York at Buffalo)
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc

---The following organizations offer full-text books over the Internet for
purchase.

Bibliobytes
http://www.bb.com/

Bookport
http://www.bookport.com/source/9539.html

Lighthouse Bookstore
http://www.awa.com/mm/lite/bookstor/bookstor.html

Nomad Books
http://www.awa.com/nomad/

Online Bookstore
http://marketplace.com/0/obs/obshome.html

Newspapers and magazines
---The following sites make available complete editions or full-text
articles of large collections of newspapers and magazines.

The Electronic Newsstand (browse through tables of contents and several
articles from each current issue. Subscriptions available for electronic
versions of many items.)
gopher://gopher.enews.com

Online Newspapers
http://marketplace.com/e-papers.list.www/e-papers.home.page.html

WWW NewsLink
http://www.newslink.org/newslink/

nongraphical version is available at
http://www.newslink.org/newslink/nongraphical.html
--Judith Dixon
                               ###

Books about the Internet

More information about the Internet can be found in the following
special-format books. NLS books listed as in process will be announced in
_Talking Book Topics_ or _Braille Book Review_ when production is completed.

---Cassettes
Available from cooperating network libraries:

Internet Complete Reference RC 39665 by Harley Hahn (in process)

Available from Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic:

Doing Business on the Internet: How the Electronic Highway Is Transforming
American Companies DY930 by Mary J. Cronin

Hands-on Internet: A Beginning Guide for PC Users CG301 by David Sachs

How to Advertise on the Internet: An Introduction to Internet--Facilitated
Marketing and Advertising FD84 by Michael Strangelove

The Internet Book: Everything You Need to Know about Computer Networking and
How the Internet Works FC166 by Douglas Comer

Internet: User's Guide and Catalog CF748 by Ed Krol

---Braille
Available from braille-lending libraries:

Finding It on the Internet: The Essential Guide to Archie, Veronica, Gopher,
WAIS, WWW (Including Mosaic, and Other Search and Browsing Tools) BR 10054
by Paul Gilster (in process)

Internet Complete Reference BR 9992 by Harley Hahn (in process)

---Computer Diskette
Available from Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic:

The Whole Internet: User's Guide and Catalog EA713 by Ed Krol
                              ###

The Program
The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the
Library of Congress publishes books and magazines in braille and in recorded
form on discs and cassettes for readers who cannot hold, handle, or see well
enough to read conventional print because of a temporary or permanent visual
or physical handicap.
     Through a national network of state and local libraries, the materials
are loaned free to eligible readers in the United States and to U.S.
citizens living abroad. Materials are sent to readers and returned by
postage-free mail.

Books and Magazines
Readers may borrow all types of popular-interest books including
bestsellers, classics, mysteries, westerns, poetry, history, biographies,
religious literature, children's books, and foreign-language materials.
Readers may also subscribe to more than seventy popular magazines in braille
and recorded formats.

Special Equipment
Special equipment needed to play the discs and cassettes, which are recorded
at slower than conventional speeds, is loaned indefinitely to readers. An
amplifier with headphone is available for blind and physically handicapped
readers who are also certified as hearing impaired. Other devices are
provided to aid readers with mobility impairments in using playback
machines.

Eligibility
You are eligible for the Library of Congress program if:
---You are legally blind--your vision in the better eye is 20/200 or less
with correcting glasses, or your widest diameter of visual field is no
greater than 20 degrees;
---You cannot see well enough or focus long enough to read standard print,
although you wear glasses to correct your vision;
---You are unable to handle print books or turn pages because of a physical
handicap;
---Or, you are certified by a medical doctor as having a reading disability,
due to an organic dysfunction, which is of sufficient severity to prevent
reading in a normal manner.

How to Apply
You may request an application by writing NLS or calling toll-free
1-800-424-9100, and your name will be referred to your cooperating library.

Projects & Experiments is published by:
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20542
All correspondence should be addressed to the attention of Publications and
Media Section.

Editor: Vicki Fitzpatrick

Writers: Robert Axtell, Judith Dixon, Robert McDermott, Carol Strauss, and
George Thuronyi

_Projects & Experiments_ is published on an occasional basis to summarize
and provide in-depth information on technical developments of interest to
blind and physically handicapped individuals and on long-range program
projects of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress.
                              ###

*** 9/26/95 (gft)***