Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2019

The nonprofit Benetech team built the revolutionary Bookshare library for this community, all online, and based on the powerfully flexible ebook. We named this library Bookshare because it was created with an army of crowdsourcing volunteers, many of them blind people themselves, who scan the books using optical character recognition.

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Forum One

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

National Rural Health Resource Center Gold – Health The National Rural Health Resource Center provides technical assistance, information, tools, and resources for the improvement of rural health care. Forum One worked with the National Rural Health Resource Center to design their new website in Drupal 9.

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Award Museum Kansas City Drupal 92

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Libraries for people who are blind or dyslexic are the primary source of accessible books in audio, large print or braille. But, some companies want to empty the library shelves and insist that only books that can’t be purchased are allowed to be stocked in such libraries. Bookshare was created under the Section 121 U.S.

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Copyright United States Library eBook 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JANUARY 17, 2014

Bookshare: Solving the “Accessible Book Famine” Twelve years ago, we had an idea for recreating the traditional library for people with print disabilities—such as those who are blind, cannot physically turn the pages of a book, or have learning disabilities, like dyslexia—using the then-emerging technologies of digital books and crowdsourcing.

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Copyright Law Accessibility Library 196

Tech Soup

MARCH 5, 2014

Pottsboro Area Library in Texas. We of course got lots of great stories, and our winner is the Pottsboro Area Library. Forty-two percent of Pottsboro’s school children are eligible for the National School Lunch Program. The library has new promotional materials to use. Their prize was a Dell Latitude Tablet 10.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 3, 2013

Betsy Beaumon I recently had the honor to speak at the first-ever Braille Summit , hosted on June 19-21, 2013 by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and Perkins School for the Blind. Guest Beneblog by Betsy Beaumon, VP and General Manager, Benetech’s Global Literacy Program.

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Literacy eBook Images Accessibility 208

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

AUGUST 16, 2011

The goal of the DIAGRAM R&D Center is to greatly improve access to graphical information for students with print disabilities (for example, helping blind students get access to important graphics inside textbooks). We are also building a content model for making images more accessible.

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Images Alternative Student Accessibility 194

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

The goal of the Treaty is to make a copyright exception for the blind and other people with disabilities that stop them from reading print, and to make import and export of accessible content legal. My core point: Don’t put up bureaucratic barriers to access. The biggest challenge for access is that it’s expensive.

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Copyright India Library United States 158

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Bookshare and our other Access to Literacy initiatives, including the DIAGRAM Center and Route 66 Literacy, all made big strides this year through the significant dedication of the community that makes it all happen. How people access our books also got a whole lot more interesting in 2012. We’ve added over 1800 books since then.

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Literacy Program United Arab Emirates Student 166

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

We have been helping blind and print disabled people gain access to books for over 17 years. Two recent experiences underscored different parts of this struggle to deliver access. It's great to see someone still using one of our products to access books for this length of time. They face barriers enough without adding more!

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Washington Accessibility Student Library 100

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

NOVEMBER 3, 2008

Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that all people deserve "the right to seek, receive and impart information." One of the programs developed by Benetech is a digital library called Bookshare.org. Today, millions of people are denied this basic human right because they are not literate.

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Accessibility India United States International 100

M+R

JUNE 5, 2023

As incredible as they might sound, these are just a few of the new “children’s rights laws” that could become a reality under a new United Nations program if fully implemented by the Carter administration. Enter spaces you otherwise would not have access to. You never know who has anti-vaccine videos buried in their content libraries.

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Conservancy Influence Mail Headline 80

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 23, 2010

with print disabilities, with more than 70,000 copyrighted works in our library, the majority of which have been created under the US copyright exception by volunteers, mainly people with disabilities themselves, helping each other. • We now have global permissions for around 8,000 copyrighted books out of our 70,000. •

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South Africa Copyright Ghana India 150

Tech Soup

JANUARY 21, 2014

In our last blog post , we talked about the surprising number of Americans without access to. national level. national nonprofit focused on eliminating the digital divide. together the access, hardware, and training needed to. Unlimited Access: It’s a $10/month Internet plan that offers unlimited data.

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Digital Library Internet Mobile 54

Get Fully Funded

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Candid’s Foundation Directory Essential is a fast, easy-to-use tool that offers you free instant access to 100,000 U.S. Candid’s Foundation Directory Online database provides access to over 140,000 foundation and corporate donors. Their database is completely free to use, so all you need to do is set up an account to get access.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

APRIL 20, 2013

Earlier today, I attended the American Foundation for the Blind’s (AFB) National Leadership Conference in Chicago where I received the 2013 Migel Medal. And when the idea of a peer-to-peer ebook library came to me, it was George who I went to with the idea. It was named for the first board chair of AFB, M.C.

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eBook Award Copyright Syria 221

Tech Soup

MAY 22, 2014

Libraries, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations can help fight youth hunger by sharing information about local free summer meal sites. Only one in six children who are eligible for the National School Lunch Program take advantage of the Summer Food Service Program. You can make a difference, even if you are not a meal provider!

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Hunger Free Library Help 47

Tech Soup

APRIL 7, 2014

Last week, TechSoup for Libraries held a webinar called Public Tech Instruction: Teaching the Public on Internet Safety. The presenters, Austin Stroud of the Monroe County Public Library and Crystal Schimpf of TechSoup for Libraries, shared resources for teaching online safety and security. Assessments/Quizzes.

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Teach Build Online Austin 51

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Led by Benetech’s VP of Engineering Gerardo Capiel, we will create an online space, SocialCoding4Good, where people in the tech community interested in social causes can volunteer ideas, connections, time and skills. Our members are now downloading accessible books at a rate of more than one million books per year!

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Tech Soup

APRIL 25, 2014

This means youth who had access to nutritious meals during the school year may be undernourished or hungry over the summer. And there's a new free mobile app called Range that helps libraries, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and others working with youth locate those free meal sites this summer. That's 3.9 MILLION U.S.

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Feeds Free Hunger Help 78

NTEN

AUGUST 1, 2011

And 19,000 players have helped improve food security, increase access to clean energ,y and end poverty in more than 130 countries with EVOKE , an online game created for the World Bank Institute that's resulted in real-world solutions for key problems. New York Public Library: Find the Future.

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Game Problem Fund Volunteer 100

Bloomerang

DECEMBER 19, 2023

According to a National Council of Nonprofits report , the vast majority of nonprofits operate at the grassroots level, and 88% have budgets less than $500,000. Carefully consider fee structures to find the right balance between access to features and a high net donation amount. However, many nonprofits operate with tight budgets.

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Software Free Tools Adobe 83

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

DECEMBER 29, 2010

As part of my holiday greetings this year, I would like to introduce you to two young people who have used Benetech’s Bookshare library to reach academic excellence and find the books that keep them engaged in their off hours. You can read our full profile of Steffon here.

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Student Alabama Jacksonville Create 145

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MAY 22, 2013

Support open data, open access to research, open content and open source. Keep the business focus on those top markets that justify the venture capital returns, that feed our successful business enterprises. But, allow the benefits of technology to reach far beyond the top of the pyramid. To the greatest extent possible, be open.

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Syria Guatemala Open Source Lecture 196

AFP Blog

MAY 16, 2011

Computer Centers in West Virginia's Volunteer Fire Stations | PCWorld : "West Virginia is leading the nation in technology innovation. Other states have set up public-use computers at public libraries, but that's not always feasible when the only public library in town is small and understaffed.

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West Virginia Virginia Volunteer Library 22

Tech Soup

MAY 3, 2017

As UpGlo scaled and expanded become to a national organization, it continued to eliminate employment barriers for skilled immigrants and refugees and integrate this population into the professional workforce. She realized there was no infrastructure to help highly skilled immigrants regain their careers and contribute to the U.S.

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Skills Global Bosnia San Francisco 52

Saleforce Nonprofit

JUNE 3, 2022

They started by using technology to connect data across their 4,900 Club locations so that national leaders could gain a real-time view into members’ needs and preferences. . With MyClubHub, our clubs will have access to real-time data at their fingertips to show how club members are participating. Watch On Demand. About the Author.

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Nonprofit New York City San Francisco Oracle 73

Tech Soup

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Andy then started PCs for People as a volunteer-based charity to fix up old computers and get them to low-income people who could really use them. Going National. In 2008, volunteer Casey Sorensen became PCs for People's first executive director. He introduced significant innovations. Bringing Good Work to Even Larger Scale.

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People Minnesota Denver Charity 36

Tech Soup

OCTOBER 4, 2013

This is the fourth and final installment in a series of grantseeking pointers inspired by fundraising consultant, Stephanie Gerding ’s great basic grantseeking information on TechSoup For Libraries that came out a few years ago. Big Book of Library Grant Money. American Library Association. Information Today.

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Fund Research Grant Guidelines 55

Forum One

MAY 5, 2010

" The event, Participation Camp , was organized by volunteers recently and sponsored, in part, by Forum One. " The stepping off point for our discussion was the stimulus money that is being used to expand broadband access. billion in Recovery Act grants and loans to improve internet access in American communities.).

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Unconference Digital Government Doc 44

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 4, 2007

It's great when one of our team is honored for their work, and Carrie Karnos has been one of our top Bookshare.org volunteers for years, including being Volunteer of the Year. She wrote, "Carrie Karnos is a Bookshare.org volunteer who has given blind readers access to more than 2,000 books. Congratulations, Carrie!

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Award San Diego New York New York City 100

Tech Soup

DECEMBER 13, 2013

Most charities and many libraries have part time or accidental techies taking care of their technology. By proper tech planning I mean the things that TechSoup for Libraries Technology Planning Cookbook talks about: Pulling together a committee of stakeholders to serve on a planning committee. Proper Tech Planning. online magazine.

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Tech Disaster Library Sample 59

Tech Soup

JUNE 22, 2015

Over the past year, we've been doing TechSoup Impact stories about nonprofits, churches, and libraries doing great work with TechSoup product donations. Full-time volunteer and board member Mercedes Pellet told us, "We could not have afforded the Desktop Office Suite for 50 employees — Office 365 is a real blessing.

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Share Organization Cisco Tech 36

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

MAY 3, 2010

However, once children learn how to read it is crucial to sustain their interest by cultivating a reading habit and while the aim was to provide a book in every child’s hand and a library in every neighbourhood we found that there was a dire shortage of high-quality, low-cost children’s books. Channels used: Twitter, Skype, Blog.

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India Strategy Skype Remix 99

Qgiv

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

More and more money is donated on this national day of giving each year. Send save-the-date reminders and early access to your donation form beforehand, and on the day of, send your main donation appeal. Try offering text fundraising options or print out cards with a QR code guests can use to access your donation form.

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Campaign Ideas Giving Tips 98

Tech Soup

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

For nonprofits, libraries, and their constituents, education is essential to keep knowledge and skills up to date. Online courses from easyLearning by Serebra provide busy nonprofiters with access to more than 1,500 technical and professional courses. Hear what other nonprofits and libraries are saying in our Community Forums.

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Library Instruction Instructional Course 47

Museum 2.0

MAY 18, 2018

We're launching it with partners at community-based libraries, parks, museums, and cultural centers around the world. How national parks leaders are doing it. Here are three ways to get started: If you work or volunteer for an organization , try the free OFBYFOR ALL organizational self-assessment. Our contexts are different.

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