Both integrated library management systems and DAISY production and manipulation tools become widespread. We study how they could be combined to build a ready-to-use digital library with DAISY as its core format. The obtained framework should cover the entire book processing, from digital files provided either by publishers or by scanning printed material, until the delivery of DAISY content to end-users in a possibly secured way. We first give a functional description of the framework we have in mind. Then, we examine the existing tools of interest and give some tracks for further software developments.

Is it possible to produce DAISY talking books of acceptable quality without manually adjusting the reading order, inserting page numbers, fine-tuning lexicons, and so on? This question is especially urgent with regard to our open educational resources published on the OpenLearn website. This presentation recounts our experiences of a fully automated production process for DAISY talking books using only open source tools.

The purpose of this two-year project (2009-2010) is to improve the distribution of DAISY content and the development of an online delivery service of DAISY content, both talking books and talking newspapers. The project is carried out by two organizations: Celia – the national library for persons with print disabilities in Finland (hereinafter Celia) – and the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired (hereinafter the FFVI). The solution will be based on network-capable DAISY players, not on computers. An online delivery platform supporting the international standard DAISY Online will be developed. The project involves 960 of Celia’s clients. These clients will be provided with a DAISY player and an Internet connection. The results of this pilot project will be used in building a national online delivery service system of DAISY content in Finland.

The ONCE provides its membership with a cost-free online library service, through which they can obtain books in both print and DAISY format. The present paper contains a brief description of the structure and growing popularity of this service.

Looking for the best way to publish accessible graphics, this presentation gives some information about how to deal with non-textual contents when adapting documents for DAISY books. It is based on a study conducted by Braillenet for enriching the Helene’s digital library with technical contents. By analysing publishing guidelines, transcribers’ work in specialized centres and main relief printing formats, this work presents thoughts on how to analyse a graphical content, how to produce vectorial images, the main steps for preparing digital image files that could be downloaded and printed, how to index these files into the DAISY book, and finally make them accessible.

I denna studie utvärderades skolplattformen Daisy, som används av studenter och anställda vid Stockholms universitet, institutionen för data- och systemvetenskap. Syftet med studien var att identifiera de allvarligaste användbarhetsproblem som studenterna upplevde samt hitta eventuella lösningar till problemen. Frågeställningen som studien besvarade var: Vilka användbarhetsproblem på funktioner i en skolplattform kan upptäckas genom en fallstudie? Hur kan dessa användbarhetsproblem åtgärdas i en iterativ prototyputveckling?. Problemen undersöktes genom att 36 studenter besvarade en undersökningsenkät. Resultatet visade att studenterna upplevde svårigheter med att boka grupprum. Användargränssnittet ansågs även vara gammalt och omodernt. Forskningsstrategin som användes i studien var fallstudier. Fallstudier bidrog till att identifiera huvudproblemet på djupet i Daisy. Arbetet skedde iterativt med fokus på ett huvudproblem: att boka grupprum. De aktiva deltagarna utformade undersökningen baserat på deras krav och behov. Deltagarnas designlösningar applicerades på en prototyp som utvärderades. I studien deltog fyra studenter som indelades i två grupper: nya och vana användare. Dessa studenter genomförde ett användbarhetstest på prototypen, besvarade en SUS-enkät och en utvärderande enkät. Resultatet visade att användargränssnittet på prototypen var lättnavigerat och viktig information fanns lättillgängligt. Vidare ansåg studenterna att det var betydligt enklare att boka grupprum på prototypen. / In this study, the school platform Daisy, was evaluated. Daisy is used by students and staff at Stockholm University, department of Computer and System Sciences. The aim of the study was to identify the most significant usability issues experienced by students and to find possible solutions to the problems. The research question addressed in the study is: What usability problems regarding features in a school platform can be discovered through a case study? How can these usability problems be addressed in an iterative prototype development? The problems were investigated through a survey questionnaire answered by 36 students. The results revealed that students encountered difficulties in booking group rooms. The user interface was also considered old and outdated. The research strategy used in the study was case study. Case studies contributed to identifying the main problem in depth in Daisy. The work was conducted iteratively, with a focus on the main problem: booking group rooms. The participant's design solutions were applied to a prototype that was evaluated. The study involved four students divided into two groups: novice and experienced users. These students conducted a usability test on the prototype, answered a System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire, and completed an evaluative survey. The results showed that the user interface of the prototype was easy to navigate, and important information was easily accessible. Furthermore, the students found it significantly easier to book group rooms on the prototype.

Looking for the best way to publish accessible graphics, this presentation gives some information about how to deal with non-textual contents when adapting documents for DAISY books. It is based on a study conducted by Braillenet for enriching the Helene’s digital library with technical contents. By analysing publishing guidelines, transcribers’ work in specialized centres and main relief printing formats, this work presents thoughts on how to analyse a graphical content, how to produce vectorial images, the main steps for preparing digital image files that could be downloaded and printed, how to index these files into the DAISY book, and finally make them accessible.

RTFC is a multichannel publishing tool which has been designed to convert text documents into several accessible formats. You can produce books in common file formats like plain text, HTML and HTML Help as well as large print, Braille, web Braille and DAISY. It implements a standard for e-books which was created at German schools for the blind. This standard makes it possible to get the most out of DAISY even though desktop publishing software often has no capabilities to mark up optional content like annotations or sidebars. Therefore RTFC is especially suitable to convert school books and other non-fiction literature.

Only two percent of new books released in Germany are professionally edited for visually impaired people. However, more and more print publications are made available to the public in digital formats through online content delivery platforms like “libreka!”. The automatic conversion of such contents into DAISY would considerably increase the number of publications available in accessible formats. Still, most data available on “libreka!” is published as non-tagged PDF. In this paper, we examine the potential for automatic conversion of “libreka!”-based content into DAISY, while also analyzing the potentials and limitations of current conversion tools.

Esta dissertação aborda a questão da “inocência americana” em duas obras do escritor norte-americano Henry James, empregando conceitos da Literatura Comparada como base para a análise dos textos escolhidos: The American e Daisy Miller: A Study. Portanto, os conceitos de intertextualidade, influência e alteridade são fundamentais para o estabelecimento das confluências e divergências entre as duas obras. Este trabalho também apresenta uma análise, com base na teoria comparatista da interdisciplinaridade, entre a obra literária Daisy Miller: A Study e o filme Daisy Miller, dirigido por Peter Bogdanovich. O tema recorrente nas obras analisadas, o da “inocência americana”, foi abordado por Henry James em grande parte de sua produção literária, sendo um reflexo de sua própria experiência como o “outro”, bem como de suas observações sobre seus compatriotas, quando confrontados com os valores e tradições vigentes na Europa, no século XIX. James alcançou seu merecido lugar no cânone literário ocidental, graças ao seu estilo incomparável, o qual foi aperfeiçoando durante toda sua carreira e até hoje é parâmetro para escritores contemporâneos. / This thesis approaches the “American innocence” issue in two works of the North- American writer Henry James by using some concepts of Comparative Literature as base to the analysis of the chosen texts: The American and Daisy Miller: A Study. Therefore, the concepts of intertextuality, influence and alterity are vital to establish the confluences and divergences between the analyzed works. This work also presents an analysis, based on the interdisciplinary theory, between the literary work Daisy Miller: A Study and the film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Daisy Miller. The recurrent theme in the analyzed works, the American innocence, was approached by Henry James in most part of his literary production, being a reflex of his own experience as the “other”, and his observations on his countrymen, when confronted with the values and traditions in vigor in the nineteenth-century Europe. Henry James has achieved his place on the Western literary canon, due to his incomparable writing style, which he had improved through his career and still today is a reference to contemporary writers.