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This tutorial will demonstrate how educators can download books for qualified students from the Bookshare
website using Microsoft Windows 7 and Internet Explorer.
Before you download books, Bookshare recommends that you set up folders on your computer to make it easier to find
and manage downloaded books throughout the school year.
Here are some suggested configurations for the file management systems on your computer.
We recommend that you create a main folder just for Bookshare books and
always save books to that folder.
You can also create subfolders for each student, subject, grade level
or use whatever system works for you.
Once you have your folders set up, you are ready to download books.
Sponsors on organizational accounts must download and share books for qualified students.
To provide books to students, you can either share books using reading lists,
put the book files on a CD or USB drive for the student to insert into a computer
at school or at home, or you can save the books to folder on a system that the student can access.
Please ensure that only the student for whom each book is downloaded has access to that particular book.
To start, open Internet Explorer, go to www.Bookshare.org and log in to your account.
You can “search” for a specific book or author, or “browse” for a book.
When you find the book you want, select “Download”.
On the next screen, select the member or members for whom you are downloading
this title, and the desired format or formats.
Note that you can download for multiple members at the same time,
in the same or different formats.
Then select the button that says “Download Books.”
On the next screen, you will be asked to confirm the download or downloads.
You will then be taken to your “My History” page, where you will see your book and its download status.
If it says “Available,” you can select the “Available” link and download the book.
Internet explorer gives you the option to
open or save each title you download.
We recommend you select “Save As”
from the drop-down menu on the “Save” button.
This will allow you to choose where you want to store your books.
Save the book file to the specific folder you have created on your system.
If the status is “In Progress,” that means the title is still being packaged.
You will be notified by email when the book is ready. You can also wait and refresh this page.
In most cases, packaging should only take a few minutes. If the book is larger,
packaging may take a couple hours.
After you have downloaded a book, you can open the book for a student to read.
Bookshare books are downloaded as standard .zip compressed files.
If your reading tool does not automatically unzip the book file, you can follow these
steps to unzip and begin reading the book.To unzip a book file, right-click on
the book folder and select “extract all.” Then select the folder into which you want
to save the book. You can choose to save the book files either in a main folder or in
a specific student or any other folder you choose.
When you unzip a book file, you will see that it consists of many different files.
All of these files are required for the book to work properly, and they should be
preserved and kept together. When transferring a book to another device, be
sure to transfer all the files in the book folder.
To learn more about other Bookshare topics, visit the Bookshare website, the Bookshare channel on YouTube, and
Bookshare on Facebook.