[bksvol-discuss] Re: Volunteer Bio: Meet Bookshare Volunteer Roger Loran Bailey
- From: "Stacey Robinson" <staceyr75@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:16:05 -0500
Scott,
Where do we send the bios again?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Rains" <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 12:03 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Volunteer Bio: Meet Bookshare Volunteer Roger
Loran Bailey
Volunteers,
Not only is it very helpful to have your biographies of volunteering with
Bookshare on hand to orient new volunteers it is just plain fun to read
about each of you and the unique parts you play in the success of
Bookshare.
The most recent volunteer to send in his bio is Roger Loran Bailey. His
essay is below.
We look forward to receiving many more!
Scott Rains
Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department
________________________________________
Hi, my name is Roger Loran Bailey. Before I lost my eyesight in 1988 I was
a fanatic reader.
I don't think there had been even a moment since my childhood that I was
not in the process of reading one or more books. After becoming blind my
reading was confined to listening to books on tape for a long time and
there were a whole lot of books that were simply not available in that
format.
I was late to the computer revolution and when I did get a computer I was
really lucky that I even knew how to plug it in. I had to teach myself
everything. I had absolutely no help at learning how to use a computer.
The adventure was long and arduous. Finally, when I got access to the
Internet in 2003 I did, even though not immediately, visit the Bookshare
web site. At that time my ignorance was still great enough that I did not
quite understand how to even begin to use the site. I remember sending a
question to the support email address and I was replied to pretty quickly,
but I did not understand the answer. I went back to using the Internet
before other purposes and stayed away from Bookshare for a long time while
I continued to plug away at teaching myself.
It was in July of 2008 that I was getting frustrated with the playback
equipment that I was using to read audio books from one of the
audio book agencies I was using that I decided to take a look at Bookshare
again. I found out that I had learned enough that I could understand the
site a lot better than I did the first time I visited it. I started
reading the information available, including the volunteer manual and
signed up for a subscription.
I then tried my hand at some proofreading. I was lucky that I started
quite accidentally with an almost perfect scan. When I tried to
Upload it I found out that I could not do that. It was my computer
ignorance again. I then subscribed to the volunteer discussion list and
asked for help. Fortunately there was someone on that list who was able to
correctly judge my level of ignorance and talked me through the process. I
have remained subscribed to the volunteer list ever since and I discovered
a real bonus from it. That is that I have learned a lot more about using
my computer in general and my pace of learning has speeded up a lot with
others to consult.
At first my motive for volunteering was to defray the cost of my
subscription, but I found out very quickly that other reasons tended to
grow on me.
For one thing, Bookshare does not have a lot of the kinds of books that I
am interested in. Volunteering gives me the motivation to scan them myself
and submit them. I think my intention of defraying the cost of my
subscription has gone away now because I now find myself buying books
especially to scan and submit. That means that I am spending more on
volunteering than I am getting back in credits.
I will also say that the drought of books that I faced when I lost my
eyesight seems to have gone away. What with Bookshare, the National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Recording for
the Blind and Dyslexic, Gutenberg.org, Archive.org, the Baen free library,
Marxists.org, and other web sites that supply books I now have easier
access to more books than I ever had when I was sighted and the ones I
don't have access to I can make accessible by scanning and submitting
them.
I will admit that that last point is a slow way to read a book, but I
think my comprehension is better when I spend so much time working on such
a book. Besides, by making it accessible to me I make it not only
beneficial to me, but to others too.
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