Half-Blood Prince in Braille and Electronic formats

Tue Jul 12 02:17:38 UTC 2005

Hi Folks,
There are several ways of purchasing the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince
book in Large Print, Braille or electronic formats if you are blind.

Bookshare.org http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html

Bookshare.org Will Have Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Available on its Publication Date!

Continuing on our tradition of making high-interest books available to
our subscribers the day of their release, Bookshare.org is pleased to
announce that we will have Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
available on the day of its release, Saturday, July 16. Bookshare.org
staff will purchase a copy of the book that morning. Our team of in-
house volunteers will scan it, OCR it, give it a quick validation
check, then we will upload it to our site and make it available in
DAISY and BRF formats that same afternoon. We're excited and look
forward to having this latest addition the Harry Potter series
available to our subscribers, in accessible file formats and
compatible with the AT products you use. If you're not already a
Bookshare.org subscriber, but want to learn how you can become one so
you can get accessible formats of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince as well as the rest of our collection, which now includes more
than 22,750 titles, please visit www.bookshare.org/join. Note to join
you must supply a signed document that you are blind, or allow them to
check the National Library service for the Blind that you get books
from them. This last way is done each Wednesday and can take up to
five days to verify your status.

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
http://www.rfbd.org/HarryPotterinfo.htm HARRY POTTER COMES TO RFB&D?
The Countdown Begins!

Thanks to a little magic from Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic,
(RFB&D), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be available to
RFB&D members at virtually the same time as the book is released
internationally. The latest title in the Potter series from author
J.K. Rowling will be recorded in a marathon session by a team of RFB&D
employees and volunteers on July 16 - the day the book is released -
so that RFB&D members will be able to read the guaranteed bestseller
at the same time as their friends and peers. RFB&D's accessible
audiobook is expected to be available the morning of July 18 on
RFB&D's AudioPlus? CDs and RFB&D's Classic cassettes.

Here's how to order your Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
audiobook:

1. If you have an active online account (or wish to activate one),
click on the "Log In to Order Now" button above to order the title.
Prior to July 18, the book will be available as a pre-order
reservation.

2. You may order by phone by calling RFB&D's Member Services
Department at 800-221-4792. Again, prior to July 18, the book will be
considered a pre-order.

3. You may fax in your order to 609-987-8116. Be sure to include your
member ID number.

4. You may e-mail your order to custserv at rfbd.org.

Be sure to include your member ID number.

Special CD Player Promotion!

RFB&D and longtime partner Telex Communications are working
collaboratively on the Harry Potter project by offering the compact
and portable DAISY-compatible Telex Scholar CD player at a special
price of $199 for members who order Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince on CD between June 1 - July 31, 2005. That's $50 off the
regular retail price of $249!

To get Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince CD and the Telex Scholar
CD player at the special promotional price, you must call in your
order to RFB&D's Member Services Department at 800-221-4792. If you
are ordering the book only, (and not the CD player) you may order it
by the methods described above.

Royal National Institute of the Blind
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/
public_harrypotter.hcsp

New Harry Potter book to be accessible

Summary: Announcement about the new Harry Potter book and how you can
order your Braille copy!
'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' by JK Rowling will be the
first ever novel in the UK to be published simultaneously in Braille,
large-print and standard print.

The Braille version will be published by RNIB on 16 July 2005
alongside the other versions. This will enable thousands of blind and
partially sighted children and adults to read the same book at the
same time as their sighted peers. Prior to this, blind book fans have
had to wait months or even years for the latest book to be
'translated' into Braille.

Ten-year-old Harry Potter fan Richard Wheatley, from Wandsworth in
South London, lost his sight when he developed a brain tumour at the
age of five. Richard, whose favorite Potter characters are the Weasley
twins, said: "I'm really excited that I'll be able to read 'Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' by myself. Last time I had to get my
mum to read it to me and it took two months to finish. This time, I
can get it as soon as my friends at school do and even read it in the
car and in bed at night when I'm supposed to be asleep!"

Bloomsbury will be publishing the large-print edition of 'Harry Potter
and the Half-Blood Prince' simultaneously on 16 July. Sarah Odedina,
Publishing Director of Bloomsbury Children's Books, said: "We are
delighted to be working with RNIB to ensure that all readers will be
able to enjoy the Braille, large print and standard print editions of
'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' on the same publication day."

Denied the right to read

John Godber, RNIB's Head of Products and Publications, said: "The
right to read is often denied to people just because they're blind.
More than 95 per cent of books are never published in a format that
blind or partially sighted people can read such as Braille, large
print, or audio. This is partly due to technology and most publishers
not realizing that blind and partially sighted people want to read
books just the same as everybody else. Publishers as well as the
government share a responsibility to make that happen. RNIB, as part
of the Right to Read Alliance, has worked closely with JK Rowling and
Bloomsbury, the publishers of Harry Potter, to make this latest
installment available to blind readers."

JK Rowling said: "I'm delighted to be part of a publishing initiative
that gives blind and partially sighted children and adults the same
reading opportunities as sighted book lovers."

Buy your copy

You can buy a copy of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' in
Grade 2 Braille at the recommended retail price of ?16.99 from RNIB.
Telephone RNIB customer services on 0845 702 3153, email
cservices at rnib.org.uk or order via our online shop. Place your order
by Wednesday 13 July, to receive your book on Saturday 16 July.

18 point large print versions will be available from all libraries and
bookshops.

Bloomsbury will also be co-publishing with HNP Productions the
unabridged audio version of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince",
narrated by Stephen Fry, on 25 August.

National Braille Press http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/HALF.html

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HALF)

Scholastic, the US Publishers of the Harry Potter books, officially
announced today that a Braille edition of Harry Potter and the Half-
Blood Prince would soon be available. Working with the National
Braille Press, Scholastic said that the book would be available no
later than July 19th of this year. Some 10,000 Braille editions of the
Harry Potter novels have been purchased by blind and visually impaired
readers. The companies are now working round the clock for the next
few weeks to make sure the newest edition of the books is ready for
their readers. Block quote start "According to the National Braille
Press, producing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Braille is
a massive, labor-intensive task that will result in the publication of
a nine-volume edition that spans 13.5 inches and weighs approximately
11 pounds. It will take only three weeks to transcribe, proof, emboss,
collate, and ship the Braille edition, because National Braille Press
will allocate sufficient resources to accomplish the monumental task
in order to meet Braille readers' request for timely access. Most
Braille publications can take months or years to go from a print
edition into a Braille edition." Block quote end Price: $17.99 Format:
Braille Price: $17.99 Format: Portabook (CD-ROM) Price: $17.99 Format:
Portabook (Floppy)