[bksvol-discuss] Re: An alternative to validating fair quality submissions

  • From: "Gary Petraccaro" <garyp130@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:58:32 -0500

Or, just because I have to mention it, Gotham, which has to be one of the longest audio books I've ever seen. About gangs in NY.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 9:57 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: An alternative to validating fair quality submissions 



Or the Old Time Radio a Complete Encyclopedia, over 800 pages.


Shelley L. Rhodes M.A., VRT, CTVI
and Guinevere, Golden lady Guide
juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc.
Graduate Alumni Association Board
www.guidedogs.com

More than Any other time, When i hold a beloved book in my hand, my
limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.
- Helen Keller
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Petraccaro" <garyp130@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 9:26 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: An alternative to validating fair quality
submissions


There's got to be some version of the super heavyweight class.  For
instance, what would you give whoever did Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich?
<grin>
----- Original Message ----- From: <talmage@xxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 11:22 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: An alternative to validating fair quality
submissions



I'm a bit torn here regarding this topic.  Remembering the days when I
relied on RFB, The Library Of Congress, and my KRM model 400, I either had 
to deal with a lengthy wait for the book to possibly become available, or
scan it with results that now wouldn't even be considered fair. Back then 
if I wanted to read the book desperately enough, I would put up with the
rotten scan. At the time it was my opinion that a poor scan was better in 
most cases than no scan.  My concern with axing fair scans across the
board is that we may miss the opportunity to come across an author,
subject, or unique book we may not have the chance to ever have elsewhere. 
I think Bookshare has moved in the right direction by hiding the poorer
quality scans from users by default, but still allowing those willing to
take a chance on being disappointed to find the less than stellar scans.
I hate to admit it, but I do usually avoid now-a-days, validating scans
that have been rated fair.  If I do validate one, I will almost always
reject it if there are any missing pages. The other thing I won't do with 
a fair book is put too much time into cleaning it up, and I'll make sure
it is still rated fair when I resubmit it, in the hope that when we go
back over the fair books in the collection, it will be replaced with a
better quality scan.
Regarding this topic however, I have a couple of suggestions that for the
most part wouldn't be too hard to implement.
As many others have suggested, I would have the books scanned for quality
on their submission, rather than relying on the opinion of the individual
scanners to choose a quality rating.
I would develop a multi tiered credit rating for submissions, as opposed
to a straight $2.50 across the board, and on a separate note, I'd also
base the amount of credit on the number of pages in the book.  I don't
think someone who submits a 25 page book should get the same credit as
someone that does a 750 page book.
I also think that Bookshare should track some statistics on user
submissions, and after a user has reached a certain percentage of their
books being rated as fair, the system should refuse to accept any further
fair scans from them.  So in other words, if 75% of a user's scans are
rated fair, the system wouldn't allow any further fair submissions from
the user.  This would of course rely on the earlier point of scanning for
quality at the time of submission, and it would require that a minimum
number be submitted before it kicked in.
I think Bookshare should also track the number of times each book has been 
downloaded, and for popular books that are less than excellent, they
should be pushed onto the wish list for a BSO scan request.
Before anyone beats up on me with the staff time concern, the only time
involved would be in developing the plan, and than a short amount for the
software engineers to do some coding to automate the whole process
involved.  While the multi tiered credit could be confusing, I'm not
talking anything too involved.  Maybe something like a base of $2.50 for
an excellent scan, $2.00 for a good scan, and $1.00 for a fair scan.  You
could than multiply the rate by a percentage for volume, something like
1.0 for over 250 pages, .80 for 151 to 250, .70 for 101 to 150 etc. So in 
the cases above with a fair book, (yes I chose the easiest one to figure)
the submitter would get $1.00, $.80, and $.70, respectively.  Please keep
in mind the above are just examples to show what I mean, and the staff
hopefully with some volunteer input would have to set a scale.  As for
being confusing, the volunteer can still go to their profile page at any
time to find out what the actual credit they've accumulated is.

Dave
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