Enhanced Mueller Report Now Accessible to All

By DPLA, July 19, 2019.
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On May 21, DPLA announced the release of its ebook of Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, or the Mueller Report, available for free as an EPUB file from DPLA’s website and on the Open Bookshelf collection within the SimplyE app. The previous DPLA edition has already been downloaded more than 40,000 times. 

Today DPLA is proud to release a better version of the report with improvements including links to more than 750 of the original documents referenced in footnotes and format and tagging enhancements to make the document more accessible to those with text impairments.

To create this enhanced version, DPLA collaborated with the Internet Archive and MuckRock, who provided the links to the footnotes. We discovered that Bill Kasdorf and Thad McIlroy at Publishing Technology Partners had initiated work on a more accessible version and we joined forces. codeMantra implemented the accessibility improvements,  and Digital Divide Data provided production support.  

At DPLA we strive to make information and knowledge available to all, including those who require assistive technology in order to read the text.  To make the report more accessible, the codeMantra team used the DAISY Ace Checker to help identify issues and the codeMantra automated toolset to make corrections and refinements.  This latest version of DPLA’s EPUB of the Mueller Report now meets both WCAG 2.1, Level AA and EPUB Accessibility 1.0 requirements, and therefore also conforms to the US government’s Section 508 regulations.    

One of the primary objectives of DPLA’s ebooks work is to make the best openly-licensed e-content available to libraries and their patrons.  Libraries offering New York Public Library’s SimplyE app can now integrate this more accessible version of the Mueller Report easily into their ebook offerings from the DPLA Open Bookshelf. The Mueller report is also available to all for free on DPLA’s website, the Open Library, and within the free SimplyE apps.

Two ways to Read the Mueller Report today

Option 1: Download on the web and read in your preferred EPUB reader  – Visit https://muellerreport.dp.la
Option 2: Read in SimplyE app on your phone or tablet:

  1. Download the SimplyE app to your iOS or Android device.
  2. Use the library selector icon in the upper left corner, select Manage Accounts, then Add Library, and select Digital Public Library of America.
  3. Find the Mueller Report in the second row.

To learn more about Open Bookshelf and other DPLA ebooks offerings, visit https://ebooks.dp.la. DPLA’s ebook work and the production of the Mueller Report ebook is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Want to see more public domain government documents in Open Bookshelf? Let us know what you think of this initiative at ebooks@dp.la

SimplyE is The New York Public Library’s free e-reader app that makes it easier than ever to borrow eBooks. It is available on the App Store or Google Play. Developed by NYPL as an open source initiative, now other libraries can provide a consolidated and clear view of their e-book collections. Libraries and developers can learn more at the SimplyE project site.