Hi Kelly,

I will forward your question to the folks responsible for NetLibrary-related
issues here at the University of Wisconsin system. If I get any response,
I'll share it with the group. I hope that others also post their findings to
the whole group.

Needless, to say, the question is of utmost importance, and it can be easily
extended to include all other electronic resources to which libraries
subscribe these days.  I do not know of any study of the accessibility of
electronic database systems commonly used in libraries: web-based catalog
systems, such as Voyager; article indexes/databases, such as offered by
Proquest, Ebscohost and Wilson; electronic reserve systems; as well as
ebooks and ejournals. If anyone knows of such study, please let me/the group
know.

Most vendors of electronic library-type databases seem to have little, if
any, awareness of this issue. I asked about 10 different vendors at the ALA
2000 Conference last summer about the accessibility of their products for
people with disabilities. With one or two exception, the vendors either did
not know what I was talking about or they did not know the answer.

Greetings,

Axel
Library
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Web Accessibility Survey Site
http://library.uwsp.edu/aschmetz/Accessible/websurveys.htm





-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly Ford [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 10:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: NetLibrary


Hi All,

I wonder if anyone else knows more about something I was recently told
about NetLibrary, the online service that's trying to sell ebooks to
libraries.  Someone from the Multnomah County Library responsible for
electronic databases told me that NetLibrary gave 1,500 free ebooks on a
trial basis to 100 libraries. Multnomah County Library happens to be one of
the libraries.

Does anyone know if there's any organized movement among libraries to
demand better accessibility from NetLibrary before libraries sign on?  Both
the HTML and proprietary book reader versions of their electronic books
have accessibility problems that are bad enough to cause many people using
screen reading trouble problems accessing the material.  Neither their
software or web pages would pass any proposed legal standard on
accessibility.