Hi, Grace! I'm usually pretty patient, but I have to agree here. It's
funny, though, because I've validated some of her submissions that were
excellent. It's really a shame, too, because she does submit some books
that look great. She also submits a lot of Christian romances, and some of
them look really good. Bless her heart, I do hope she isn't on this list,
at least not right now. <Smile> However, it is an issue that definitely
needs to be addressed.
Jana
Mike:
This person that we have been discussing is by no means a newby. This person has well over 500 submissions. I do not want to show them the door but encourage them to improve their technique. It would be a shame to lose such a prolific submitter. But if many of the submissions are so poor that they'll need to be rescanned later, in my opinion, it's a waste of volunteer time. The time that a validator spends attempting to clean up or fix up this particular individual's books is so time consuming that it is easier to rescan the book. If a volunteer commits to rescan one of this individual's books, it is time that could have been spent adding a book that never was in the collection to begin with.
I do agree with your point that it is important to have diversity in submitters and content. That's why encouraging people to work on their scanning techniques is imperative.
Since this is a community it is healthy to offer suggestions or opinions. Bookshare, as an organization, has the right to change policies as they see fit. Likewise, as community members, we have the right to continue to volunteer or not. However, what I have experienced from time to time is people not only offering their opinions, but demanding that Bookshare adopt their point of view as policy, which I feel isn't fair to Bookshare, or the community as a whole.
Grace
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Pietruk" <pietruk@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 12:03 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Quality and page breaks
Shelley
You bring up something else which is important.
We improve our scans and validating as we gain experience. If a newcomer
is shown the door, so to speak, and discouraged from submitting -- or
becomes apprehensive in doing so -- how do we gain.
That's why I would prefer cataloging solutions which would alert folks to
problems and potential difficulties rather they summarily being thrown
out.
A system such as BookShare needs that flexibility given what this is -- grassroots sharing of personally scanned books.
