[bksvol-discuss] Re: Have your scanning and proofing choices changed, with the influx of publisher quality books?

  • From: Scott Rains <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:46:08 -0700

Volunteers,

In response to both Judy's note on her trip to the candy shop below and Larry's 
dilemma posted to the list today on how to select books to scan let me close my 
work day by sharing with you this note. Arriving in my Inbox first thing this 
morning it was titled 'Complaint" from our CEO Jim Fruchterman: 

Jim,

I would like to register a complaint!  Bookshare is piling on books faster than 
I can read the titles.  Ever since I was a kid, I was a title glutton.  I went 
through every catalog the NLS had and every Braille Book Review.  I did the 
same later with Web Braille, and whole months have gone by during which I knew 
every book that hit the collection. 

This was viable, maybe even adaptive behaviour in a climate of scarcity.  I 
could pluck out a handful of the finite number of books on offer and leave the 
rest, and if I didn’t have absolute choice, I at least got to be sure I wasn’t 
missing anything.

Not. Anymore.  Bookshare is adding so much content that favourite authors of 
mine are creeping into the collection without my noticing.  I’m finding whole 
herds of books I thought would be too frivolous ever to scan but that I 
secretly wanted to read but that that *I* would never scan because I would look 
silly. (E.G. a compendium of fashion mistakes spotted in Brooklyn.  An 
anthology of rejection letters.  Something called Zen Computer that gives you a 
meditation for every function key on the keyboard (the @ reminds you to 
consider your position in the universe!))..)

Seriously, you guys rock.  I love this new pace and all the variety.  Feel free 
to share this with whoever’s responsible for the awesomeness.

Best,

Chancey

So volunteers, although our contribution into the collection stands at 142 for 
July as of midday today, you still share in the blame for this embarrassment of 
riches!

Thanks for all your work. Other responsibilities today have kept me from 
providing you with the volunteer manual feedback summary that I promised but 
you will be pleased to learn that one of those responsibilities included 
detailing the changes to be made as a result of your input.

Scott Rains
Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department
________________________________________
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
On Behalf Of Judy s. [cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 5:08 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Have your scanning and proofing choices changed, with 
the influx of publisher quality books?

Wow. I just checked the list of new books that have been added to
the collection in the last 4 weeks, and it includes over 9,500
titles. Congratulations, Bookshare! That is absolutely amazing.

In the last year I've changed my own personal strategy in terms
of what books I work on, migrating to getting into the collection
treasured books long out of print or from presses that aren't
signing on to Bookshare. That way I feel I can continue to
contribute, but in areas that aren't going to overlap with
publishers' contributions. I'm definitely curious if other
volunteers are doing the same!

So--what are you concentrating on scanning or proofreading, and
has what you're working on changed with the influx of new
publishers coming on board? Are there hints you can share with
how you're making your choices, that the rest of us volunteers
can use so we don't end up duplicating effort with the PQ books
that are coming into the collection?

I've already had several books that I worked on replaced by
"publisher quality" books.  I thought I would mind, but then
realized that I'm feeling pretty philosophical about it.  I do
regret that (in my opinion) some of the publishers quality books
aren't as good as the ones they're replacing that were done by
volunteers, mainly because of the missing image descriptions in
the PQ books that volunteers worked so hard to get into their
contributions of those titles. So I hope Bookshare finds some
sort of way to have this addressed in the future.  I know that
the staff are aware of this issue, from what's been said here.

Overall, though, as a Bookshare member, I'm actually just feeling
like a little kid in a really big candy shop. smile.

Judy s.
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