All We Are Saying Is Give Books A Chance.

Introduction.

In late February of this year, RNIB, (one of the prominent organisations for blind people in the UK), reached a significant milestone. They began offering a service of making available their vast collection of DAISY books for download.

Up to this point, books were provided either online using the Overdrive platform (in lower quality MP3 format), or in DAISY format on CD, the latter service being in place for many years. DAISY not only offers a higher standard of audio reproduction but in addition allows a user to navigate through the book more easily.

Using the new service, books can be downloaded to a computer or transferred to a portable media device without any limitations. You do not need to return a book to the service, nor is it in any way protected using a PIN code or provided in a proprietary format as is the case with many other libraries. Moreover, registration for the service is easy and quick. Oh, and did I mention that the service is completely free? What's not to like?

Apparently quite a lot, according to a recent podcast entitled Tech Talk, ironically published by RNIB Connect Radio. In reviewing this new service, they didn't just rain on RNIB's parade but they delivered a tremendous downpour.

In listening to this latest episode, I heard criticism after criticism of a project which is a tremendous step forward for RNIB; a project which we should be embracing and getting behind. If I had been working on this project at RNIB, investing a good deal of time in trying to provide this service, I would have been seriously depressed. It would have been very soul destroying. Hundreds of hours must have gone into the preparation of this service. Hearing the podcast in the way it was delivered wouldn't exactly make you feel you wanted to come into work in the morning. Offering constructive criticism is one thing, but this podcast started with negative comment and did not seem to progress much further.

To be fair, mention was made of superior audio quality as a point in its favour. But one thing I have learned is that if you want something productive to happen, you need to start by highlighting the positive aspects of a service. If you want someone to do something for you, it's important to start out by being positive and talk about what you do like. It makes people feel a whole lot better and they will want to support you in your objective.

The Comments.

Preferences are not ported from Overdrive. I do not see how this could have occurred. It is a completely different platform. The range of books is larger with the new service, and more importantly, the login process is different. You previously had a reference number and password to log in, whereas now it is more flexible and your Email address is used and a password of your choosing. So there is no way I can see that any reading preferences could have been preserved.

Not much has changed. They are still using MP3 files. Of course they are. Part of DAISY is the MP3 format, together with other files which determine book navigation. But from an audio perspective, I can assure the reviewer that the quality is far superior with these titles.

Books have to be downloaded twice. They do not. It is a very straightforward process (albeit a slightly lengthy one) for a book to be downloaded to a computer, whereupon it can be transferred to a device using standard Windows techniques. You just need to read the help document which very clearly explains how this works.

Registration link could not easily be located. Very close to the top of the home page is the link to do that. This may seem a little ambiguous but it is entitled "Register".

Summary.

Doubtless some of the criticisms are valid, although I would suggest that the vast majority of the service can be easily navigated. To be fair, I felt that Robin, (one of the presenters), did his best to present this in a positive light. But overall I did not feel that this podcast was very well crafted. I have heard it twice now, and it seemed to me that a better approach would have been to give it a more positive vibe with any criticisms delivered in such a way as to make it more palatable and to encourage people to give the service a try. That is surely what we all want.

The In Touch programme, when reviewing the service, also were extremely negative. Again, they started out with a pile of criticisms as to how difficult the experience was and then eventually got around to saying it was an improvement. It seems to me that this is getting a very negative press at the moment.

The best things we can do as users of the service would be to:

• Read the documentation which is provided describing thoroughly how to use the service.
• Talk to RNIB in a positive way so as to give feedback on troublesome areas.
• Tell people that this is really good and give it a try. Use social media to good effect and tell the world that this new service is up and running.

I'm never prepared to ask people to do something I'm not prepared to do myself. So when time allows, I will record some short audio tutorials which take people through how to accomplish tasks one would typically wish to achieve with the RNIB Home Reading Service. That is how confident I am that this is more than just a version 1.0 release of this project as was stated in the podcast.