Wilson Debuts New ReadSpeaker Feature
for Its Full Text Databases
Text-to-Audio Converter Is a Boon to Researchers on the
Go, ESL Users, and the Sight-Impaired
New York, New York, January 26, 2009
Busy students and other researchers now have a new reason to
appreciate WilsonWeb full-text databases. WilsonWeb's new
ReadSpeaker tool converts the databases' HTML full-text articles
into audio files for immediate listening or downloading for later,
with no plug-ins or special software necessary. Listen to articles
as streaming audio or save the files in MP3 format to iPods and
other portable devices, for listening as you commute, relax or
exercise. The new tool covers content from some 2,500 publications
back as far as 15 years.
ReadSpeaker also makes WilsonWeb's full-text
content accessible to a wider range of users, including people with
dyslexia and other learning challenges, users whose low vision,
blindness, or physical handicap makes it difficult to read a
standard printed page, and others who might like to hear as well as
read the words, such as users who struggle with English or those
challenged by low literacy.
For the sight-impaired, ReadSpeaker opens a
new world of content to complement the lauded Talking Book programs
in libraries around the U.S. What Talking Books does for book
literature, WilsonWeb's ReadSpeaker does for a wide range of
periodical content. For fiction lovers, ReadSpeaker even
delivers the more than 4,200 short stories provided in full text on
Wilson's Short Story Index database.
Twenty of WilsonWeb's full-text databases will
feature ReadSpeaker, including Applied Science & Technology
Full Text; Art Full Text; Biological & Agricultural Index Plus; Book
Review Digest Plus; Current Issues: Environment; Current Issues:
Health; Current Issues: Reference Shelf Plus; Education Full Text;
General Science Full Text; Humanities Full Text; Index to Legal
Periodicals Full Text; Library Literature & Information Science Full
Text; Readers' Guide Full Text, Mega Edition; Readers' Guide Full
Text, Select Edition; Science Full Text Select; Short Story Index;
Social Sciences Full Text; Wilson Business Full Text; Wilson
OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition; and Wilson OmniFile Full
Text, Select Edition. Each is available for free 30-day trials.
"WilsonWeb has always met Section 508
requirements," said Ron Miller, Director of Product Management,
referring to ordinances that oblige system compatibility with
screen-reading devices. "With ReadSpeaker, we exceed 508, enhancing
accessibility for an important segment of the public."
About H.W. Wilson
Since 1898, independent publisher H.W. Wilson has
provided researchers with references produced with unmatched
editorial integrity. More than 60 H.W. Wilson databases—indexes,
abstracts, full text resources, plus the acclaimed Retrospective
Collection—meet the research needs of customers around the globe.
From the long-popular
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature to today's
widely-praised Current Issues:
Reference Shelf Plus and
Current Issues: Health, H.W. Wilson products are created for
librarians, by librarians. Over 150 Wilson editorial staff members
with MLS or MLIS degrees—multi-lingual trained librarians and
subject specialists--build the Wilson references each day.
Contact:
Roseward Sky
Phone (800)
367-6770, x2272
Email:
rsky@hwwilson.com
Frank Daly
Phone: (800) 367-6770, x2312
Email: fdaly@hwwilson.com
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