Bookshare NIMAS Access

[jpapasedero]

Hi Jerry,
I was a part of your November webinar on Bookshare. Unfortunately, I was not able to listen all the way to the end of the program, but I learned a lot while I was able to participate. Thank you!

I have a question about Bookshare that I hope you can answer. I find that while the website has a lot of information on it, it has so much information that it is difficult to navigate.

I know that once students have established an individual membership (following my enrolling them here at school) they will get a password and can access books on their home computers. Is this true for all books, including textbooks? I have a comment in
my notes that NIMAS books can only be accessed at school, but am not sure that is accurate. Students typically need this support at home and don't have time to "read" at school. How do they access textbooks at home?

Thanks for your help

[Jerry]

Although it is true that students cannot download NIMAS books at home, any textbook that you download at school can be used at home.  That is, if the student has a laptop with the book installed on it the laptop can be used at home - or, the book can reside on a CD or USB drive and taken home that way.  The book can even be copied to a home computer as long as the NIMAS book is only used by that student.  The software that the student uses to access the book will have to be on the laptop or a computer at home.  The free Bookshare version of ReadOutloud can be installed on a home computer for the use of that student.

Also, a textbook can be duplicated for use by that student.  So a textbook may concurrently exist on a school computer, a home computer and even on a portable device.