Years ago a friend of mine used to transcribe books into Braille using
a very clunky old machine that reminded me of my grandfather's old
adding machine (the kind with the lever you have to pull down for each
sum). It took forever to produce even a small volume!

With new computer technology is it possible to semi-automatically make
printed books into Braille books since the copy is all on disc anyway?
 What's the latest in Braille book technology these days?  Are
volunteers still needed to do transcription work in this field?

The brailling instrument you are thinking of is probably a Perkins brailler
http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/enlarge_image.asp?n=11&c=27&sc=80&id=1402&it=1&l=3&d=0

Another type of brailler is at
http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/enlarge_image.asp?n=11&c=27&sc=80&id=2437&it=1&l=3&d=0

(or: http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk/ - Keeping in Touch - Braille Machines)

It is now possible to produce braille from computers. The text has to
be edited first by hand because braille has its own rules for
spelling, punctuation and formatting. For example, the abbreviation
RNIB has to be tagged so that it is encoded as letters R,N,I,B and not
as a word. It is then passed through software that translates it to
the braille encoding scheme used (grade one braille has a braille
character for each letter, grade two braille has a braille character
to represent common two- and three-letter combinations, to save space,
and fields such as music and mathematics have their own schemes to
represent the special characters used). Some of this encoding would
also have to be done by hand, especially for specialised fields.

In many cases the desire is for existing books to be brailled and
these might not be available in a usable disk form from the
publishers. The entire publication has to be input manually. For a
one-off copy, it may be quicker and cheaper to do a direct
printed>braille copy using a Perkins or similar, rather than
translating via computer. In the UK, there are several projects where
prisoners are doing valuable work transcribing university texts for
blind students.

The text can then be printed on a braille embosser. Some are sold at
http://www.brailler.com/webcat.htm

You might find the RNIB factsheet on producing braille useful. The
text may wrap in a web browser - this version is actually designed for
being read on a braille display.
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_techbraille.txt

There is an overview of the process at
http://www.brailler.com/shop.htm

Owain

thanks, owain . . . 

this is really a good start

why aren't you a researcher?  

ts

I'm not a researcher because (a) Google Answers was not taking on any
more researchers when I joined; and (b) I answer these sorts of
questions on newsgroups free anyway.

Owain