Talk:Bookshare

This page was proposed for deletion by Ohnoitsjamie (talk · contribs) in the past with the comment:
No third party reliable sources for notability; will be sent to AfD if disputed.
It was contested by Kvng (talk · contribs) on 2020-06-26 with the comment:
Poor sourcing is not an uncontroversial WP:DEL-REASON, please use WP:AFD

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Disability

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Better sources for the article[edit]

I noted that the article has been tagged as poor quality, and it certainly is. However, it is the largest library for people who are blind or dyslexic in the world, so there's lots of independent sources. Unfortunately, I have a COI with the article, so the best I can do is surface some better sources here on the talk page.

Here are a few: https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/01/palo-altos-benetech-wins-42-5m-dept-of-education-contract-to-help-the-blind-read/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilylanghorne/2019/04/29/how-one-nonprofit-is-improving-the-lives-of-students-with-reading-barriers/#70f8f1757ab8

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/11/02/10book_ep.h31.html

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-04-22-benetech-macmillan-pioneer-effort-to-make-all-digital-books-born-accessible

The U.S. Department of Education information on 10+ years of funding of Bookshare at levels in the $6.5 to $8.5 million range are hard to find, because of how opaque the government funding is. The grant is listed in the discretionary awards database. However, this annual performance document by the Office of Special Education Programs lists the annual Bookshare funding amount and numbers of books provided to disabled students on page 5.

https://www2.ed.gov/programs/oseptms/educationaltechnology.pdf — Preceding unsigned comment added by JRandomF (talk • contribs) 00:21, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sources from major U.S. libraries, such as NYPL, California state library, Library of Congress https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/11/10/bookshare-free-accessible-ebooks

https://www.library.ca.gov/btbl/bookshare/

https://www.loc.gov/nls/braille-audio-reading-materials/textbooks/

Major publisher partnerships (lots more could be tracked down) https://permissions.penguinrandomhouse.com/prh-bookshare.php

U.S. Senators Cassidy (R-LA) and Murphy (D-CT) on the importance of funding Bookshare nationally: https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-cassidy-lead-group-in-requesting-30-million-for-bookshare-program-to-help-students-with-disabilities

https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-colleagues-urge-support-for-bookshare-program-helping-students-with-disabilities

https://riponadvance.com/stories/cassidy-spearheads-bipartisan-request-30m-fund-expand-bookshare-program/

International press about Bookshare in different countries (typically, Bookshare partners with a leading blindness group to offer national library services in these countries)

Australia

https://www.visionaustralia.org/community/news/2019-08-23/vision-australia-library-members-benefit-600000-new-titles

Ireland

https://www.rte.ie/news/education/2019/1114/1090713-digital-library-books/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/digital-library-to-empower-visually-impaired-students-963928.html

India: https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/usaid-grant-helps-create-marathi-books-for-blind-kids/article_8a390798-c104-11e4-80f7-f74935b71a70.html https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Centre-launches-Sugamya-Pustakalaya-an-online-library-for-Persons-with-disabilities/articleshow/53847985.cms https://www.telegraphindia.com/jharkhand/e-library-for-the-print-disabled/cid/1356498

UAE: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/world-s-largest-accessible-library-reaches-out-to-visually-impaired-in-uae-1.667377

United Kingdom: https://www.rnib.org.uk/rnib-partners-benetech-deliver-online-resource-print-disabled-learners https://www.wales247.co.uk/rnib-bookshare-celebrates-half-a-million-books/

JRandomF (talk) 02:01, 10 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for this. I think the refs from mainstream media organisations with a reputation for reliability (e.g. RTÉ, the Irish Examiner, to a certain extent The National, would be best for demonstrating notability. the Education Week and EdSurge sources seem fairly good for this as well. TechCrunch seemed good at first for this purpose but see its entry at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources ... also ditto with the Forbes source, which is by a contributor, not a staff member. (This does not mean they can't be used at all ... just that they don't count as much to indicate notability in Wikipedia terms). I might work on the actual article later, if somebody else doesn't get there before me. Graham87 06:50, 10 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Graham. Agree on the Forbes article. The TechCrunch article is a regular journalistic piece, done with multiple interviews and sources, by Ned Desmond, who actually is the head of TechCrunch. However, the main notability issue, which is the US government has spent close to $100 million on Bookshare is findable in US Government records. It's just hard to get the data cleanly. I added a government report on its special education report which named the key Bookshare stats from 2011 of $6.5 million in funding that year. I wonder if the annual financial returns or public auditor reports of the parent charity (Benetech) are considered reliable sources for the key numbers. An independent auditor report on the government funding seems pretty reliable for establishing the kind of money invested in this library by the government. JRandomF (talk) 00:28, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think they'd be fine for that purpose, but I wouldn't sweat too much about it. For me the notability in Wikipedia terms is in the fact that Bookshare is used by people with disabilities across the world and has been commented on several times independently in international press. Graham87 04:30, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I've had a go at cleaning up this page, even though articles like this are way outside my comfort zone. Now that I think about it, maybe listing sources from each country's magazines/newspapers might not be the best idea ... noting what's going on around the world could get very unwieldy, very quickly. I've tried to keep the use of Bookshare's website as a source restricted to purely factual statements. I still don't feel that that this article is entirely safe from a reasonable deletion challenge, and I can't exactly pinpoint why ... I'm more used to working on topics with very clear notability criteria ... but I'm sure more and better sources will become available as time goes on. But maybe considering my last deletion nomination, which was also about the disability space, there might be nothing to worry about ... Graham87 12:23, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This looks great, Graham. At least the sources are solid now, even if it's still pretty stubby. As a subject matter expert on social enterprise, I'm encouraging the Women in Red project, supporting more articles about women nonprofit leaders, and helping create articles about other nonprofits which are leading in their fields, based on winning major awards. Certainly, Bookshare is in that rough zone on notability. I think it might also benefit from some of the editors who work on articles on libraries. JRandomF (talk) 01:26, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]