Hello Frank: I can answer at least some of your questions.
1. How do I sign up? The sign up process for Bookshare is in two parts. First, you have to prove eligeability. This can be done either by having a medical professional fill out the provided form on the Bookshare site, or, and this is far easier, by giving them the name of your participating NLS (talking book) library. I notice from your signature line that you're also from Tucson and the Arizona State Library is a participating library. It takes about 2 to 4 weeks for this step. Bookshare will contact the state library and you're in. The second part is to pay your sign up fee ($25.00) and your first year's membership fee ($50.00) and your in. As I recall, this can be done via credit card or by sending them a check. Your username is usually your email address. 2. Can I sign up using the BN? Yes, the Bookshare site is VERY!! accessible using Keyweb. 3. What's the cost? $25.00 application fee and $50.00 per year membership. 4. I think I heard some where that BN users received some discount, is this true? I know I recieved a discount when I purchased Kurzweil, but don't remember any kind of discount with my VoiceNote. 5. Ones I'm a member, how do I go about downloding books? This is the easiest part. You simply go to the search page, type in either your author, title or keywords (Not as useful) and then press enter. The site will then return books that meet your search criteria. You then press enter on the book(s) that you want and you'll be asked for the type of format that you want. Either DAISY or Braille (BRF). The Braille formatted books are readable with the BrailleNote family of products. You'll then start the download process on your BrailleNote. You'll be asked where you want the books stored. I've setup a compact flash for my books. I find I can hold over 350 books on one card. Once the book is downloaded, you'll have to uncompress it. The BrailleNotes book reader will do this for you. Simply go to the Key book reader and open the title you just downloaded. The BrailleNote will ask you for your bookshare password and then where you want to put the uncompressed book and then unpack it and open it for you. After unpacking the book for the f irst time, you can get rid of the old compressed book. You won't be asked for your pasword again once the book has been uncompressed.
