[bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?

  • From: "Tammy Blaker" <wyomiia@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:11:05 -0500

There is one real problem with publisher's books.  No page numbers!  I use the 
Stream to read books at night and it has a sleep button that lets me set the 
Stream to turn it's self off in 60 min.  I however, go to sleep sooner.  When I 
turn it on the next day I have to go back anywhere from 10 to 100 pages to find 
where I went to sleep.

Could volunteers proof the publisher's books to add pages?  That is one thing I 
love over the NLS BARD books is page numbers.  I'm sure others prefer Bookshare 
books to NLS for this reason too and the fact they take up less room in storage.

I feel sure there are going to be other problems to show up with publisher's 
books that will need volunteers to fix.  If Bookshare and the publishers will 
let them.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Reggie & Brooks 
  To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 9:00 AM
  Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?


  I agree.  It seems to me that quite possibly we are, as volunteers, becoming 
less and less important to the whole process.  It is much simpler to take a 
book that has already been made electronic and use that.  I personally felt 
much more needed at the beginning when I was proofing submissions from my 
fellow volunteers.  The idea behind being able to volunteer also was to help 
anyone who wanted to spend the time help themselves build up credits to get 
free subscriptions.  For me, this was an important part but not really the 
reason I volunteered.  I wanted to help blind people get books that when I was 
young I would have had to wait years for NLS to make available.  If BKS decides 
we are an unnecessary part, I am unsure if I would look for books on Bookshare 
as 50 dollars a year on top of ever higher prices of things is a lot for me.  I 
think I would be heart broken, however, because Bookshare is a way to share 
with each other, and there is little of that left in this country, in my 
opinion.  Everyone seems to be out for himself.  For me Bookshare is a way I 
can give back to the blind community.  I don't do anywhere near the books that 
some do, but the time I volunteer I knew was going to give someone somewhere a 
book to make them smile, cry, or laugh that he or she might not have gotten to 
read if I and my fellow scanner had not taken the time to give to them.  I 
don't know if this new publisher books is a good idea and if it will eventually 
be deemed we are no longer needed, but I definitely don't feel as close to the 
process or to the people who might enjoy my work.
  Reggie

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