In Praise of Lulu Publishers and Digital Authorship

(reposted here from my Online Course Lady blog)

I just had a delightfully happy feel-good moment related to digital content!

This evening I got an email from a blind student who is learning Latin using a digital audio recording of Wheelock's Latin, one of the standard Latin textbooks. So: that is good news to begin with - I am glad that there is a good Latin textbook that has been configured so that it can be used by a blind student learning Latin.

She had found my Latin Via Proverbs book on the Internet, and wrote to ask me if there was any way she could get a text file of the book's contents, because a text file is easy to use with the JAWS program that assists her in using print materials. A text file is much easier to work with than a traditional printed book.

Well, of course I could do that - it was easy! Since I have a digital copy of the book's contents on my computer, it just took me a couple of minutes to send that plain text file to her.

I love the way that digital content is so easy to re-purpose. On the one hand, I was able to publish the book as a printed book. So, for people who like to hold the book in their hands, they can have a printed book - and thanks to the power of Lulu Publishers, they can have the book quite cheaply, at about half of what it would cost if I were to publish it with a traditional publisher.

Yet in addition to the book, I have a wiki with the book's contents, and I blog about materials that would not fit in the book (space limitations), while also adding digital audio to the text online.

And just now I was able to create a JAWS-friendly version of the book's contents for this particular student!

Flexibility. Use. Re-use. I am very happy being a digital author!