[bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
- From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:20:10 -0700 (PDT)
Yes, I had that thought, too.
Cindy
--- On Tue, 8/12/08, Mike and Lori Castner <mandlcastner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Mike and Lori Castner <mandlcastner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 9:50 AM
> Maybe what we need is validators for PQ books. One of the
> things I hate
> most is words that are hyphenated between lines, and worse
> yet, between
> pages. There may be other things to look for. We want the
> best reading
> experience we can possibly deliver and my example of
> hyphenation would
> certainly detract from any book, including a PQ book.
> Mike
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:46 AM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare & PQ submission
>
>
> > Reading the thread about publisher quality
> submissions, I thought it was
> > worth weighing in with more information. The mission
> of Bookshare.org
> > is to get better access to books to people who cannot
> effectively access
> > print. I know our volunteers support that mission.
> >
> > I consider the issue of possibly losing quality
> content, that is,
> > something that makes the reader experience better
> (like picture
> > descriptions), is always worth looking at. That's
> because it ties
> > directly to our mission. I hear people worrying about
> throwing out
> > children's picture books with picture descriptions
> and replacing them
> > with publisher-supplied versions. But, I don't
> think we have any
> > children's book publishers providing us with
> digital content. We're not
> > focusing on them, because there isn't a big win
> there (34 words in a
> > kids book is not that hard to get in by typing).
> We're focusing on
> > textbooks and technical books, and getting trade books
> when we can.
> > Scholastic gave us permission to provide their books
> globally, but
> > didn't give us any digital content. So, I think
> folks should not be
> > worrying about a surge of kid's picture books with
> 34 words in place of
> > 34 words plus nice picture descriptions.
> >
> > The other important part of publishers supplying
> content is that almost
> > all of them provide these global rights that enable us
> to expand
> > Bookshare.org to serve all print disabled people
> globally. That's
> > really important for our mission: many more people
> need us than live in
> > the U.S. Publishers often require us to replace the
> scanned books with
> > the digital books, to minimize the concerns publishers
> and authors have
> > about having errors in their work. This is a big, big
> concern of
> > authors, and we have to acknowledge that as creators
> of the wonderful
> > books we share, we have to respect their concern that
> their works be
> > communicated in the as close to the original quality
> as possible. Our
> > community has benefited from the dedication of our
> validators to ensure
> > these outcomes.
> >
> > The issue of "throwing away" volunteer work
> to give the reader a better
> > quality book seems like an odd issue. Improved
> quality content has been
> > the number one issue of Bookshare readers when we
> survey them. It's
> > certainly the number one issue of ex-Bookshare.org
> users, and I take our
> > failure to serve them seriously. Our volunteers have
> always embraced
> > making better scans of books. Why does this change
> when it's the
> > publisher volunteering a better version of the book?
> We wouldn't keep
> > the fair version of a scanned book around when it was
> replaced with an
> > excellent scan: we've been throwing them away with
> our dedication to the
> > readers. Plus, the publisher quality books are
> increasingly coming to
> > us with improved navigation options.
> >
> > Let's be honest: volunteers will continue to be
> the primary source of
> > books for a long time: years and years. 95+% of the
> books in
> > Bookshare.org is there because someone in our
> volunteer community
> > decided it was worth having. If someone complains
> that a book isn't of
> > the quality it says it is, we'll replace it with a
> better one. That's
> > we've decided that if one person in our community
> thought it was
> > important to have, we will invest the money to buy the
> books and the
> > energy to replicate it.
> >
> > We're here fighting for equality for readers with
> disabilities. The
> > "powers that be" are pretty clear about
> mission and our entire team
> > spends a lot of time trying to figure out the best
> ways to accomplish
> > that mission. My suggestion is that when there are
> changes (and there
> > are going to be a lot of really great changes) to
> Bookshare.org, that we
> > can assume that everybody on the Bookshare.org team,
> users, volunteers
> > and staff, are all trying to accomplish the grand
> goal: the highest
> > quality books at the same time as non-disabled people
> have them, for the
> > same of lower price!
> >
> > Jim Fruchterman
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