Supplying files

Are there any set-up or maintenance fees?

There are no fees for publishers. However, we never say no to a donation, the opportunity to apply for any funding schemes you operate, or free marketing support!

You could sign-post to our collection from your accessibility information page and direct all customer enquiries about texts for print-disabled learners to us, this means you only have to provide the file once.

How do customers request books?

We ask customers to follow the steps on our book request page.

What file formats would you like?

Books

We accept publisher book files in EPUB2, EPUB3, RTF and PDF. We can use your EPUB or RTF file to automatically make the title available in a range of accessible formats. Where your supply a PDF only, the book will only be available to download by our members as a PDF. 

Fixed format EPUB: we don’t specifically block the fixed format / enhanced titles. But they do provide a poor automated conversion into other formats.

Text recognisable PDF: your PDFs must be text recognisable and not saved as images only. Please also ensure that crop marks are removed.

Metadata

We accept metadata in ONIX 2.0 as a .xml file. We use a subset of a valid ONIX file based on the standards defined by EDItEUR.  If the ONIX meets those standards, we should be able to process it. Download the ONIX standards.

If sending multiple ONIX files, please ensure they have unique file names. The system will reject files with the same name and only process the last one in.

How do we add our files to the collection?

There are two ways to submit your files to the collection:

Manual upload process

We will set-up an account for you so that you can provide files using our manual process. Very simply it's select the file, enter the ISBN and check the metadata. But you can only do one title at a time using this method.

Direct publisher feed

We have a number of publishers who have direct feeds with us and have provided us with back catalogues of their titles. The list includes Manchester University Press, Taylor and Francis, Pearson Education, Penguin Random House,  Hodder Education Hachette UK and SAGE Publishing.

Through this route you can send files directly from your content management system into our collection; either one file or hundreds at a time. We hope all publishers will move across to delivering files using this method and going forward you can also schedule to deliver any newly published titles to us on a regular basis.

Can we send content from different sources?

Yes, providing your direct publisher feed is set up, you can submit content from different sources into your feed by ensuring you all use the same publisher feed log in details.

If the book files and ONIX metadata arrive at different times our system will regularly search for the corresponding files and once found will push the books through into our live collection.

Which books would you like?

On average we receive 500 book requests a month, at peak times over the academic year this can reach over 1,000 a month. We're typically able to fulfill 80 per cent of these requests. When a request comes in we contact the publisher and ask if they're able to add the file to the collection.

We're also very interested in receiving titles from backlists, as this assists in the quick and easy provision of books to print-disabled learners and reduces the need for customers to go through our book request process.

We have over 140 Universities using the service and as they've increased in number, we've found that we are receiving more requests for titles from international publishers. If you're happy to provide titles from your UK and international offices that would be fantastic.

Which countries will be able to download our books?

Your books are available to download by our customers based in the UK. You can also select if you wish them available elsewhere, either by specific country code or region; UK, Europe, Worldwide.

Our non-UK customers will only be able to access resources where download permission has been given for their country.

We have 3,000 accessible images in the collection to in large print and tactile formats and RNIB is the predominant publisher of these and they're available to all of our customers.

Can you provide a report on our titles in the collection?

Yes, we are able to provide you with a report listing the books you have on RNIB Bookshare and in which format.

We can only provide you with download figures if your books are submitted to the collection via your direct publisher feed.

When no file exists for a title we give permission to make a scan of the relevant publication, is this something that could be covered by you?

The organisation producing the accessible format may do so under the remit of The Copyright and Related Rights (Marrakesh Treaty etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2018  without specifically requiring permission from the publisher.