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

I think the answer to your question depends on the fate of politically 
unpopular titles as well as the back- and mid-list titles.s.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx 
  To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:36 PM
  Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?


  If I had a stack of those gay and lesbian books on hand I can imagine that I 
might send them off to Bookshare and I might be out the postage and the cost of 
the books if I had bought them, but I would also be out many hours of volunteer 
labor to get them into the collection. I am not particularly interested in 
children's picture books, so I have not downloaded any, but I would think that 
outsourcers could handle them. I think that Pavi, in fact, said that the more 
difficult books have priority for being outsourced. The main thing I have 
noticed, though, is that the proportion of books added to the collection by 
means other than volunteers is now considerably greater than the proportion 
added by volunteers and that proportion is growing. Also, a good many books 
already in the collection by means of volunteers are being replaced by other 
means. Furthermore, the proportion that are being added by volunteers could , 
in most cases, be done faster and just as easily or more easily, by those other 
means. No one has mentioned it. In fact, the Bookshare staff is proceeding away 
with more and more innovations for volunteers. What I was really wondering is 
whether volunteering is becoming obsolete and nobody has noticed it.

                                                            "Can a nation be 
free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot." Vladimir Lenin     

               The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder Press: 
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
  Granma International: http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html
               _

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  [bksvol-discuss] Re: Are volunteers really that important anymore?   
  Date: 
  8/27/2009 4:25:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time  
  From: 
  rwiley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  Reply-to: 
  bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  To: 
  bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  
  Sent from the Internet 
  (Details) 
  table end

  Roger, this is an excellent summary of some of the things I have also been 
thinking. 

  When I first started with bookshare a couple of years ago, there were tons of 
books whose rating was fair, and in most cases that designation was kind.
  But, the books were available, and for a group starving for reading material, 
they were great to have.  

  However, our tastes--and our tolerances--have improved. Where once we would 
accept day-old bread because we were starving, we now want freshly baked goods.
  (Wow, I must be hungry). 

  So, I think your comments about the changing role of the volunteer are right 
on target. There will always be a need for volunteers to do the specialty books
  (such as children's books with pictures), and books of special interest. I 
can't imagine NLS having a whole category of gay and lesbian books, nor can
  I imagine the department of education wanting their money going toward that 
end. (I'm not being critical, just can't imagine it happening.) But, we 
volunteers
  can make it happen. We can also put books in the collection from those 
publishers who won't cooperate with us (after all, we have the law on our 
side). 

  In short, I see the role of the volunteer changing, but not going away any 
time soon. 

  There's an old Chinese proverb that says "may you live in interesting times." 
I've always wondered whether that was a curse, challenge or a blessing. Whatever
  it is, we live in very interesting times with bookshare. 

  Bob 

  “We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will 
live on in the future we make,”
  Senator Edward M. Kennedy 

  block quote
  ----- Original Message ----- 

  From: 
  Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx 

  To: 
  bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 

  Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 9:22 PM

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

  I am not taking a position one way or another. I just thought I would express 
some thoughts and questions that have been running through my mind. I have
  been involved with Bookshare for just a little over a year now and have seen 
some considerable changes. I have also surmised changes that came about before
  I came along. As I understand it the name Bookshare was literal in the 
beginning. That is, people posted the books they had scanned for themselves and
  actually shared them with others who were posting books they had scanned for 
themselves. That would have meant that the only source of books Bookshare
  had for the most part was from the volunteers. Since then, though, publishers 
have come to contribute large numbers of books. Bookshare is acquiring books
  from donations or from buying them and scanning them in house or outsourcing 
them. It actually appears that the number of books added to the collection
  by means other than volunteers is considerably greater than those added by 
the volunteers. I have noticed other things being done that volunteers do that
  may be being done more prolifically by other means than by volunteers. On 
more than one occasion now I have made a quality report for a book that 
contained
  an error or errors. To my surprise the whole entire book was promptly 
replaced by an outsourcer. That makes me wonder why we should bother with 
scanning
  a BSO. Volunteers are more and more frequently finding that the books they 
intend to scan are being added by outsourcers before the volunteer get a chance
  to add it. Yes, that means that the volunteer can work on something else, but 
it still remains that work that would have been done by a volunteer is being
  done otherwise. We were asked for some suggestions about gaps in the 
collection and I made a suggestion. As I scan the new books lists I see that it 
appears,
  to my gratification, that my suggestions are being acted on. I am pleased, 
but I cannot help noticing that it is being done without volunteers. If time
  is money I wonder if it might be more efficient to donate money to Bookshare 
to buy books and pay outsourcers rather than donate our time. If we want certain
  books in the collection I wonder if it might be faster and more efficient to 
just donate the books rather than put so much of our own labor into them.
  As things change devices to accomplish our goals become obsolete when they 
are replaced by better devices and certain jobs become obsolete when better
  and mor efficient ways are found to do things. I wonder if Bookshare 
volunteering is a job that is becoming obsolete. Since we have not even heard 
hints
  from Bookshare that new volunteers are no longer welcome or that volunteers 
can give up on certain jobs I wonder if Bookshare volunteering is becoming
  obsolete and the folks at Bookshare do not even realize it yet. It does seem 
that the volunteers are becoming less important to Bookshare and that Bookshare
  could probably now do quite well without volunteers while still adding books 
at a rapid rate. I am not saying that is good or bad. I am not saying that
  I want it to be like that or that I don't want it to be like that. I am just 
wondering and thinking. What do you guys think about what I have said?  

                                                            "Can a nation be 
free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot." Vladimir Lenin     

               The Militant: 
  http://www.themilitant.com 
  Pathfinder Press: 
  http://www.pathfinderpress.com
  Granma International: 
  http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html
               _ 
  block quote end

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